Ocean State Libraries

When the massive metal tank filled with sticky brown molasses that rises up over her crowded North End neighborhood explodes, young Carmen must fight for her life, as a tsunami of molasses rushes through the streets. --

Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters was playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!"
A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed...

In 1919 Boston, an orphaned eighth-grade girl plans to head west to become a cowboy until the giant tank of molasses in her neighborhood explodes.

An account of the January 1919 molasses tank explosion in Boston, Massachusetts, seeks to uncover why the tank blew up and who was to blame through primary sources and archival photographs that show the extent of the damage.