On Jan. 15, 1919, the city of Boston experienced a unique and horrifying disaster when a tank that stored molasses for a distilling company collapsed, flooding parts of the town. The incident became known as the Great Molasses Flood and caused the industry to rethink how to store supplies.
According to Britannica, a storage tank fermenting molasses initially to create ethanol for World War I weapons collapsed, sending more than 2 million gallons into the city. The accident caused 21 deaths, 150...