If a worker stood still for a minute he found himself glued to the ground.Ī large party of Red Cross workers, women and girls, braved the tangled sticky mass to bring relief to the men. To hasten this process the firemen turned on several streams of water. The work was greatly hampered by the oozing flood of molasses which covered the street and the surrounding district to a depth of several inches and slowly drained down into the harbor. Scores of ambulances - army, navy, police, hospital and Red Cross - were quickly on the scene. The street was strewn with debris, intermixed with molasses, and all traffic was stopped. They were quickly followed by surgeons of the navy stationed in the vicinity and members of the Red Cross.Ī number of horses were killed. Sailors from the United States ship Rockport, at a wharf near-by, were the first to assist after the explosion. The other half of the tank wall crashed against the structure of the Boston elevated railway in Commercial Street, damaging three spans. One fireman was killed and two were injured. One of the sections of the tank wall fell on a fire house, crushing it. The greatest mortality apparently occurred in one of the buildings of a city storage yard. Two million gallons of molasses rushed in a mighty stream over the streets, and converted them into a sticky mass, the wreckage of several small buildings smashed by the explosion. The circular wall broke into two great segments of sheet iron. The tank was owned by the Purity Distilling Company.Ī dull, muffled roar gave but an instant’s warning before the top of the tank was blown into the air. Wedger, explosives expert, said that he was not prepared to give a final opinion, but that it seemed probable it resulted from gas fumes generated by fermenting molasses within the tank, which was not full. The cause of the explosion has not been definitely determined. Most of those injured suffered only from bruises. 15, 1919, the day of the disaster.īOSTON, January 15 (AP) - Nine persons are known to have been killed and about fifty injured by the explosion of a huge tank of molasses on the water front off Commercial Street, near Keany Square, to-day.Įight bodies were removed from the wreckage, and one man died at the relief hospital. The Associated Press was there and published this story on Jan. The city will mark the centennial of the disaster, when the tank containing more than 2 million gallons of molasses erupted, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others. 15, 1919, in Boston's North End neighborhood. 2, 2019, photo, cars are parked along Commercial Street near where a giant storage tank of molasses burst on Jan. 2, 2019, photo, a person walks along Commercial Street near where a giant storage tank of molasses burst on Jan. 2, 2019, photo, a placard commemorating the Great Molasses Flood rests on a wall at the site of the 1919 disaster in Boston's North End neighborhood. Several buildings were flattened in the disaster, which killed 21 people and injured 150 others. 15, 1919, file photo, the ruins of tanks containing more than 2 million gallons of molasses lie in a heap after erupting along the waterfront in Boston's North End neighborhood.
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