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In the heart of Boston, on a sweltering January day in 1919, a disaster of unimaginable viscosity unfolded. It wasn’t a fire, nor a bomb, but something far stranger and more insidious: a tsunami of molasses. It was a crisp winter afternoon, January 15, 1919, and Boston was abuzz. The Great War had recently ended, … Read more
The year is 1919. Boston, a city steeped in history and the aroma of industry, was about to be forever marked by a disaster as bizarre as it was brutal. It wasn’t fire or flood in the traditional sense, but a tidal wave of a different kind – a monstrous surge of molasses that swept … Read more
The winter of 1919 in Boston was already a harsh mistress, with the nation still reeling from the Great War and grappling with the impending Prohibition. Yet, on January 15th, a day of unseasonable warmth, Boston was to face a disaster of truly sticky, and horrifying, proportions. A colossal tank, holding over 2.3 million gallons … Read more
The air in Boston on January 15, 1919, was unseasonably warm for a January day. Citizens bustled through the North End, a vibrant immigrant neighborhood, unaware that a slow-moving catastrophe was about to engulf them. The cause? Not a bomb, not a fire, but something far more bizarre and deadly: a colossal wave of molasses. … Read more
The air in Boston’s North End on January 15, 1919, was unusually warm for a mid-January day. Temperatures had climbed rapidly, reaching a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This unseasonable warmth, however, was about to unleash a disaster of sticky, suffocating proportions. For years, the Purity Distilling Company had operated a massive storage tank, towering 50 … Read more