The Great Molasses Flood

A strange and sticky piece of history. January 15, 1919, started off as a normal day in Boston’s North End. Workers took a break for lunch, children played in the park, trains made trips between North and South Stations. Then all of a sudden a large tank of molasses exploded, sending shards of metal hundreds of feet away, collapsing buildings, and coating the harborfront community with a thick layer of sticky-sweet sludge. Deborah Kops takes the reader through this bizarre and relatively unknown disaster, including the cleanup and court proceedings that followed. What happened? Why did the tank explode? Many people died or were injured in the accident—who was to blame? Kops focuses on several individuals involved in the events of that day, creating a more personal look at this terrible tragedy.Deborah Kops is the author of more than a dozen nonfiction children’s books, including ZACHARY TAYLOR: AMERICA'S 12TH PRESIDENT, SCHOLASTIC KID'S ALMANAC, and her Wild Birds of Prey series. She lives in Westford, Massachusetts.Of all the disasters that have occurred in the United States, the Great Molasses Flood in Boston was one of the most bizarre. Imagine a city neighborhood awash in molasses: that dark brown, sweet-and-sour liquid that sticks to everything like honey—the same stuff that makes gingerbread men taste so good.
            It sounds like a bad joke. But as the people of Boston discovered on January 15, 1919, a dark, rushing wave of molasses can be as destructive as a tornado.
            The people who lived along the narrow, hilly streets of Boston’s North End and worked on the nearby waterfront were not expecting a disaster. In fact, they thought life in Boston was getting better.
            The city’s battle with a terrible disease had just ended. In late August 1918 a mysterious illness called the Spanish influenza had arrived on the shores of the United States. Boston was the first stop on its deadly race through the country.
            In early October the mayor of Boston closed the city’s schools, churches, and dance halls to try to keep the disease from spreading. A month later the worst of the epidemic was over in the city. Six thousand Boston residents had died of the flu.
            By late fall 1918 things in Boston were looking up. Everyone had been thrilled when Babe Ruth helped the Red Sox win the World Series. Then in November the fighting in Europe stopped. The Great War was finally over, and the American troops—hundreds of thousands of them—were coming home.
            January 1919 was a hopeful time. Schools had reopened. So had the soda fountains, where kids went to buy Cokes. On New Year’s Eve tens of thousands of cheering, singing Bostonians gathered to ring in the new year. They jammed the city’s cafés and hotels and overflowed into the streets. Everyone seemed thrilled that life in this old port city was returning to normal.