"Massive Disaster in the Making: The Forgotten Story of the Great Molasses Flood. On January 15, 1919, a devastating disaster struck Boston's North End, claiming the lives of 21 people and injuring 150 others. A storage tank containing over 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst, sending a tidal wave of sticky, sweet liquid crashing through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour. The Great Molasses Flood, as it came to be known, remains one of the most bizarre and tragic industrial accidents in American history, highlighting the lax safety standards of the time. Read on to learn about the catastrophic event that shook the nation and paved the way for stricter safety regulations in the years to come."
Before engineering safety codes were standardized and widely enforced, big accidents happened all the time, but few were like the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.
