The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

In this reel

One of history's strangest disasters actually happened — and it was deadly.

Transcript

A giant steel tank holding millions of gallons of molasses cracked open one January morning in Boston. A wave of thick, dark syrup tore through the streets at the speed of a fast horse — crushing everything in its path. Twenty-one people died and over a hundred and fifty were hurt — some pulled from the sticky flood still alive. Locals said the whole neighborhood smelled like molasses for years — and the company was taken to court and lost.