[The following is an excerpt from an account of the Cocoanut Grove Fire. Context, courtesy of Wikipedia: “The Cocoanut Grove Fire was a nightclub fire in the United States. The Cocoanut Grove was a premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 28, 1942, it was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in history, killing 492 people (which was 32 more than the building's authorized capacity) and injuring hundreds more. The scale of the tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced the events of World War II in newspaper headlines. It led to a reform of safety standards and codes across the US, and to major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of burn victims internationally.”]
The stairway that promised escape from the Melody Lounge became a chimney for poisonous smoke and half-burned gasses. As patrons clambered up the stairs and into the club’s entry vestibule, heat and toxic fumes chased them all the way. At the top of the stairs, an emergency exit door with a panic bar was locked and welded shut. Desperate customers turned right in the entry hall and scrambled to the main entrance – a revolving glass door. The crush of people trying to push through both sides of the revolving door caused the door to jam, and the bodies piled up.
William Ladd, a Boston Post reporter, was a guest that night.
It seemed everybody wanted to be the first to get out. Men and women in their panic began tearing clothes from the bodies of each other. Then they got to that small door on Piedmont Street [the main entrance] and one of the women went down. Then the other men and women fell on top of her and the bodies then just seemed to keep piling up. The people seemed to be fighting each other on the pile.
Source:
Pletcher, Larry. “The Cocoanut Grove Fire.” Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Insiders Guide, 2006. 147-48. Print.
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