On January 15, 1919, a 50-foot-tall steel storage tank of hot, fermenting molasses burst in Boston’s North End. The explosion sent out a deluge of the viscous sweetener that covered the historic neighborhood like a sticky flash flood, clogging streets and trapping people indoors. Somewhere between 15- and 40-feet high, the sugar-crested wave it created moved as fast as 35 miles per hour.
Around 2.3 million gallons of molasses poured through the streets of the enclave — which includes Paul Revere’s house and Little Italy. Twenty-one people were killed in what would become known as the Boston Molasses Disaster.
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