The Purity Distilling Company, located in Boston, Massachusetts, became the scene of one of the strangest disasters in American history — a catastrophe that killed 21 people and left 150 others injured.
At the heart of the tragedy was a massive storage tank, standing 50 feet high with a 90-foot diameter, brimming with molasses awaiting shipment to a munitions plant. Though the tank had been built only a few years earlier, local residents living near the facility had long complained that it shuddered and groaned whenever it was filled with the thick substance.
According to witnesses, at approximately 12:30 p.m. on January 15, rivets started popping out of the tank, producing a rapid-fire sound that people compared to machine gunfire. The molasses burst from the ruptured container and surged into the surrounding streets with devastating force — tipping a railcar, demolishing buildings, and hurling a truck into the harbor.
When the torrent of molasses reached the Boston and Worcester freight terminal, it poured through windows and doors, trapping workers inside and killing them. Meanwhile, out in the streets, the viscous flood rose to waist level, engulfing both people and animals as they struggled desperately to free themselves from the sticky deluge.
A massive rescue effort quickly mobilized, bringing together Boston Police, US Army soldiers, Red Cross personnel, and more than 100 cadets from the USS Nantucket, all rushing to aid the victims. Rescuers established a makeshift hospital in a nearby building to treat the injured. For four days, search teams combed through the destruction before finally calling off their efforts; bodies of those lost in the molasses flood continued washing up in Boston Harbor for months afterward.