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The flood occurred on January
15, 1919, when a huge steel tank (50 feet high and 90
feet in diameter) containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses
collapsed in Boston’s North End. |
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The ensuing flood killed 21 people, injured
150, destroyed scores of horses, and left a trail of property
damage and destruction in Boston’s most heavily
traveled commercial areas (the tank was located on Commercial
Street, near the waterfront). |
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Among the dead and injured were children,
city workers who labored in the adjacent North End City
Yard, firefighters who were stationed at the nearby “fireboat
house,” and residents who lived across the street
from the tank on Commercial Street near Copp’s Hill
Terrace. |
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The clean-up effort was staggering –
it was months before all the molasses was gone. Workers
used picks and chisels to break up the hardened molasses,
and finally used seawater to “cut” the molasses
to wash it away. |
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The backdrop against which the tragedy occurred
offers an interesting component to the story – the
end of World War I and the onset of Prohibition. The molasses
stored in the tank was transported to nearby distilleries
to be converted into alcohol that was first used to produce
munitions during the height of the war and then, as fighting
wound down, to produce rum. |
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Because the molasses was used to produce
alcohol for munitions, the tank was considered a federally
protected area. The company used this fact to argue (unsuccessfully)
that anarchists had placed a bomb in the tank to cause
the explosion. |
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In one of the most unusual ironies, during
the clean-up efforts the evening following the disaster,
church bells pealed across Boston as Nebraska became the
36th state to approve the Prohibition amendment. Prohibition
would go into effect exactly one year later as required
by the Constitution. |
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In the aftermath of the flood, one of the
most exhausting legal proceedings in Massachusetts history
took place. A court-appointed “auditor” heard
119 lawsuits and nearly 1,000 witnesses whose testimony
covered more than 30,000 pages and included 1,500 exhibits. |
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During the trial, it was discovered that
the only testing that was done of the tank involved filling
it with six inches of water. No engineer was consulted
for determining the safety of the tank, and the company
used thinner steel than indicated in the plans it filed
with the City of Boston. |
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It was one of the first class-action lawsuits
in Massachusetts history and featured a “David v.
Goliath” story line – a large corporation
(U.S. Industrial Alcohol) v. primarily the families of
children, immigrants, and city workers. The flood led
to regulations nationwide that toughened building safeguards
in general, and specifically required that engineers certify
all structural plans. |
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In the end, the court auditor ruled against
the company – dismissing its argument that anarchists
had bombed the tank – and concluded that the tank
collapsed due to structural weakness. The company paid
$1 million in damages to the families of the deceased
and the injured – a figure that would be close to
$100 million today. |
