On January 15, 1919, a steel tank at the north end of Boston suddenly burst.
It stood 50 feet (15 meters) tall and held 2.3 million U.S. gallons of molasses, stored for rising wartime demand.
The day was warm for January.
The thermometer climbed past 40°F, and the warming likely helped raise the pressure inside.
From the outside, the tank looked cared for.
Why was it brown?
It had been leaking for years, and the owners never fixed it. They painted it to hide the leaks.
Then the brown hit the street.
A 15-foot wave swept the neighborhood and knocked buildings flat. They crumpled as if they were made of cardboard.
People could not outrun it. Twenty-one died, and 150 more were hurt. The molasses smothered them or buried them under fallen buildings.
Rescuers searched the sticky streets for weeks.
The body of wagon driver Cesare Nicolo was pulled from Boston Harbor almost four months later.
The case went to court. The company was found guilty of faulty construction.
Paint hid the stain.
It did not hide the blame.
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