Beyond the Flames

Nightclubs have long been among the most popular locations to spend an evening in the U.S., gaining their rise during Roaring 20’s and the times of Prohibition. But one chilly, fateful November night in New England over 60 years ago showed that they can also be the source of fire and subsequent deaths.
Boston was in low spirits on Nov. 28, 1942. Not only was the city in the midst of World War II, but also just two weeks earlier, the city’s fire department had lost six firefighters to a building collapse. In addition, the city’s college football team, Boston College, which had been undefeated and Sugar Bowl bound, suffered a dismal blowout loss earlier that day and saw their bowl dreams go out the window.
So on a Saturday night to forget, over 1,000 patrons packed the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub in Boston’s Bay Village. The building was a speak-easy during Prohibition, and was converted into a nightclub with a number of separate private lounges, bars and dancing areas. The scenery inside the club was a warming contrast to the bitter New England winter outside, with its tropical theme complete with countless numbers of fake palm trees, cloth drapes and lights galore, all full of flammable materials.
At approximately 10:15 p.m., an unknown source ignited a fire in the ceiling of the lower level of the building and within a matter of minutes the fire had raced up the stairwell to the main level, igniting furniture, decorations, and patrons’ hair and clothing in its path. When it reached the main ballroom and dancing floor, a “flashover” occurred, and the fire consumed a gaseous buildup resulting in a fireball of flames and heat consuming the area.
People had begun evacuating the building immediately, but as the fire grew, so did the panic level. Soon most of the club’s patrons were stampeding for the main entrance in an attempt to escape the flames. Complicating the situation, the main entrance was a single revolving door, which quickly became stationary as panicked patrons jammed bodies in it trying to exit.
To complicate matters, the nightclub was in great violation of the city’s fire codes at the time. Not only were there highly flammable furnishing in the nightclub, the maximum capacity listed for the club by the city was 460. Although the official amount of patrons at the time of the fire will forever remain unknown it is certain that there were at least 1,000 people in the building at the time—more than twice the amount the building was fit to handle. In addition, several of the nightclub’s emergency exits and windows had either been boarded up or locked to prevent people from leaving without paying for their drinks at the door.
Of the doors that were unlocked, all but the revolving door opened inward and was blocked almost immediately by the rushing crowds attempting to exit. The fire department was forced to dismantle the revolving door in order to make entrance to the building, and by the time the patrons were evacuated and the fire brought under control, 492 people had either perished inside the building as a result of heat and smoke inhalation, had escaped the building and collapsed outside to their deaths, or had died at the hospital.
Following the fire, cities across the country tightened their fire code laws and enforcement. Many states soon initiated laws that mandated the installation of at least one outward-opening door adjacent to every revolving door, or for that revolving door to become collapsible into itself to form a clear path of exit. A direct response to the fire was the institution of municipal code officers, whose sole purpose is to ensure the enforcement of the fire and building codes.
The Cocoanut Grove fire remains the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, and is second only to the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago as the deadliest single-building fire. And while many lessons were learned and changes for the better made, the threat of nightclub fires still remain.
2002’s West Warwick, Rhode Island nightclub fire that claimed the lives of 100 people, as well as the 2012 Santa Maria, Brazil nightclub fire that killed over 240 are evidence that despite the strides made in prevention, strong code enforcement is a must to ensure the highest level of safety in our communities.
Knoll, 21, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at beyondtheflamescmc@gmail.com. He is a student at Rowan University.