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Molasses flood survivor dies at 104

BREWSTER, Mass., Jan. 28 -- Memorial services are being planned for George W. Duffy, one of the few survivors of Boston's Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Duffy died Saturday at a nursing home in Brewster, Mass.

He was 104. Duffy was a mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service when a 50-foot-high tank filled with 2.5-million gallons of molasses exploded on Jan. 15, 1919, in Boston's North End, spewing out a 30-foot-high black wave of viscous liquid. The wave killed 21 men, women and children, injured 150 others, knocked buildings from their foundations, buckled the elevated railway's steel girders, and sent horses and people fleeing in panic. Most of the victims either drowned or suffocated. Six city workers eating their lunch nearby were immediately asphyxiated. Duffy helped to shuttle victims to hospitals and repaired ambulances so they could return to pick up more victims. He retired from the Postal Service in 1962. He leaves two daughers, 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. ---

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