Great Molasses Flood
During the lawsuit, there were three ideas about why the flood happened: 1) Yeast or other very small living things in the tank ate the molasses and gave off carbon dioxide gas, which made the tank explode, 2) someone put a bomb in the tank, or 3) the tank was not built well. Eventually, the court decided that the tank was not built well, and that U.S. Industrial Alcohol caused the flood with this unsafe tank. U.S. Industrial Alcohol settled with some people out of court too. Families got about US$7000 per dead person. The company paid somewhere from $500,000 to $100,000.