70th Anniversary of Cocoanut Grove Fire

This past Wednesday November 28 was the 70th anniversary of the horrible Cocoanut Grove Fire in Boston. 492 people died which was the second worst fire in American history. A fire in a Chicago theatre in 1903 killed 602. This was the premiere nightclub in Boston and some of my aunts and uncles lived in Boston at the time and I am sure they had been there.

The Boston College football team was undefeated and heading to the Sugar Bowl when Holy Cross beat them 55-12. I remember my father talking about this. He was in the Army in Mississippi and was having his hair cut and the barber told him the score. My father said that the barber must have heard the score wrong. BC was undefeated and Holy Cross was 4-4 and BC was heavily favored. The barber told my father he heard it correctly and my father was shocked.

BC had reserved a large table in the center of the nightclub but when they lost they cancelled going to the club. If  they did, the BC football could have been wiped out. The fire led to reforms of fire codes in the country and major improvements in the treatment of burn victims. And earlier in the month, 6 firefighters died in a fire in East Boston when a building collapsed. So this was just a horrible month in Boston.

And many of the victims could have lived. Side doors were shut so patrons couldn't leave without paying. A window was boarded up. Other doors opened inwards and the crowd trying to escape just piled up in the front of the doors. And the main entrance was a revolving door where the panicked crowd piled up and prevented people from escaping.

The cause of the fire is still in dispute. Many blame a busboy for lighting a match that ignited flammable material but he was exonerated. It is estimated that there might have been 1000 patrons in the club that was designed to hold 460. Five people survived by hiding in a walk in refrigerator and some crawled  out through the kitchen. One Coast Guardsman got out and then went back in 4 times looking for his date, who unknown to him, had escaped. He had extensive burns over half his body, spent 21 months in a hospital and had hundreds of operations. He married the nurse that took care of him.

The site of the fire is now a parking lot in the Bay Village on Piedmont St. There are a couple of small plaques there. I haven't been there but plan on taking the train into Boston and walking over there and pay my respects.

Thanking you for your time, this time, until next time, FRAN