Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Wired.com has a story via Slashdot.org that lists the worst engineering mistakes in history. By far the strangest is the death of 21 people due to a mollases syrup tank bursting in Boston over 80 years ago. Who’d have thought that molasses in Jaunary is not only slow, but deadly?

You gotta keep your molasses somewhere – how about a rickety tank 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter in the middle of Boston? The structure was painted brown to hide the leaks. Eventually it burst (possibly exploding from fermentation), sending waves of molasses up to 15 feet high into the city and killing 21. - Wired.com

A famous incident involving molasses was the Boston Molasses Disaster on January 15, 1919, in which a large molasses storage tank burst and flooded a neighborhood of Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.

Linvir of Slashdot has this hilarious depiction of a modern day molasses accident:

News: Holy crap! The town molasses has escaped! You have three hours to save yourselves!
Dude: Whoa, sounds pretty bad! I’d better…
News: Next on Six, that Paris Hilton sex tape in full! One hour later…
Dude: Whoa, that ruled. I need a beer!
Dude wastes another hour or so drinking and watching pr0n.
Dude forgets about the molasses and goes to bed.
Molasses: I am nearing Dude’s house.
Dude: I am now in bed sleeping, unaware of the impending danger.
The molasses eats Dude alive
Dude: What the heck? Oh crap, the molasses! I totally forgot!
Molasses: And now there is no escape for you!

It was probably the ginger snapping at the fleeing peoples’ heels that tripped them up. Actually not, since the wave was moving faster than I can bike down a hill with a tailwind.