On the 28th of November, 1942, a hanging decoration in one room
of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, caught fire. The flames were
initially quite trivial. Some of the patrons who witnessed them were even amused by the
efforts of waiting staff to extinguish them using glasses of water and seltzer bottles.
They could not possibly have known, at that moment, that this tiny flame would,
within minutes, grow into one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history.
The Cocoanut grove first opened in 1927 in the Bay Village area of Boston,
where it was situated across the basement and ground floor of a converted warehouse complex.
At the time Prohibition was in full force, and so for the first few years the venue
operated as a speakeasy, selling alcoholic beverages even though alcohol was illegal.
It was able to get away with this thanks to connections the owners had
with the world of organized crime. From 1927 until 1933 the club had a somewhat unsavory reputation:
it was known as a favored spot for gangs and mobsters. This changed in 1933 when two things
happened. First and foremost Prohibition ended and the sale of alcohol became legal once again.
Secondly, the then owner of the Grove was gunned down by a rival,
and ownership of the property passed to his lawyer, a man named Barnet Welansky.
Under Welansky's management, and without Prohibition to hold it back the club
flourished. It expanded into a warren of rooms across two stories with multiple lounges bars,
dance floors, and restaurants. Many of the rooms had a tropical theme with extensive decoration
including fake palm fronds and fabric wall hangings. There was also a famous "rolling roof".
In good weather this could be cranked open to allow patrons to dance under the stars.
Pleasant as it all might sound, Welansky hadn't entirely steered the club away from
its unsavory origins. His connections with the mob (which he denied in public but often boasted
about in private) allowed him to flagrantly ignore building codes and safety regulations.
For example, Welansky had several emergency exits hidden
locked or boarded up in order to prevent guests from leaving the venue without paying their bill.
Nevertheless, the club soon became one of the most popular spots in Boston,
with a constantly changing roster of live entertainment
and flocks of paying customers filling every room most nights.
On the night of the disaster the club was packed far beyond its listed capacity.
In the Melody Lounge, which was situated in the basement,
singer and pianist Goody Goodelle was performing on a revolving stage. Patrons watched from booths
and tables surrounded by fake palm fronds and lit by lamps nestled in coconut sconces.
One couple, wanting a little more privacy,
unscrewed the bulb in the sconce nearest to them, extinguishing it.
This was witnessed by waiting staff, one of whom ordered a busboy to go and fix the lamp.
The busboy did so, striking a match in the process to help him better see what he was doing.
With a few quick twists the lamp was fixed, the busboy extinguished the match and everyone went
about their business. Moments later, however, witnesses saw the first flames in the fake palm
fronds which adorned the wall and ceiling around the sconce. Waiters rushed over and tried to
extinguish the flames using water and seltzer - a sight that some found comedic at first.
Soon, however, the incident stopped being funny at all.
The fire spread from one palm frond to others and then to the fabric covered false ceiling.
Waiters hauled decorations down from the walls in a last-ditch attempt to extinguish the fire... but
in doing so opened up the space above the false ceiling, allowing the fire to spread more freely.
The flames swelled, feeding on the hanging decorations and fabric wall and ceiling coverings.
Sparks and burning scraps of material rained down on patrons, many of whom now recognized
the seriousness of the situation. They were sitting in a crowded basement room
along with a rapidly-growing fire. From this point onwards the flames spread with astonishing speed.
Patrons sprinted for the staircase from the Melody Lounge up to ground level. Some managed to escape
with little more than burned hair. Others were not so lucky: a huge fireball overtook them,
bursting out into the lobby of the Cocoanut Grove, pushing ahead of it a cloud of deadly fumes.
The onset of the disaster was so rapid that some patrons didn't have time to move
from their seats before they were dead.
When their bodies were found they were still seated, still with their drinks in hand.
Even for those who did have time to react, their escape was hampered by a number of obstacles.
Staff, who had not grasped the full severity of the fire, blocked exits, demanding people pay
their checks before they leave. Some patrons tried to fetch their coats or other possessions before
leaving, delaying their own exit and getting in the way of those who did want to flee.
As the lights inside the club failed, chairs and tables were overturned
creating trip hazards for those now trying to find their way out in the dark.
While all these things contributed to the death toll, the most serious problem was the
lack of exits. As hundreds of patrons tried to flee, inward-opening emergency exit doors
soon became jammed with bodies, preventing anybody from escaping through them.
Worse still was the main door of the club - a revolving door
that became almost instantly clogged with those trying to escape.
Many people stuck in this crush were unfortunately still alive when the fire reached them.
Firefighters happened to be nearby at the time of the blaze, extinguishing an automobile fire.
After spotting smoke over the Cocoanut Grove they rushed to the scene
and started attempting to rescue victims and control the flames.
This was an astoundingly difficult task. Bodies were packed so tightly
in the doorways that in many cases it was impossible to haul anyone free.
Some firefighters sustained cuts and grazes as trapped patrons clawed at them,
desperate to be rescued. Those who could be dragged clear were often so
severely burned that the heat radiating from their bodies burned the hands of firefighters in turn.
In addition to the heat, the rescuers had to contend with cold as well.
The outside temperature fell drastically as the night set in, and very soon fire hoses
were frozen to the ground and survivors who had escaped the flames were at risk of hypothermia.
Despite this multitude of adversity there were survivors even amongst those who had
been deep in the nightclub when the fire began. Staff fared better than patrons,
as they knew the layout of the club and were often able to escape through windows and hatches
rather than getting caught up in the crushes at the emergency exits. Several people also survived
by hiding in a walk-in freezer from which they were eventually rescued by firefighters.
Hospitals in the area received an unprecedented influx of patients:
more than 400 casualties were brought in for emergency treatment within just an hour or two.
In a stroke of extreme good fortune local hospitals were very well prepared for this sudden
rush. With World War II looming on the horizon hospitals had been stockpiling medical supplies
and preparing for the worst case scenario of an attack on the east coast of the USA.
While these circumstances ensured that victims had excellent care and medical treatment,
it was in many cases to no avail. Of the victims that were still alive when they reached hospital
more than half subsequently perished: their injuries were too severe and the medical
technology available to treat burns and smoke inhalation in 1942 was too basic to save them.
Ultimately, the Cocoanut Grove fire claimed the lives of 492 people.
An investigation was launched. The exact cause of the fire was difficult to determine.
Had it been the bulb the couple in the melody lounge had loosened in order to give themselves
some privacy? Or had it been the match the busboy lit while trying to screw the bulb back in?
No definitive answer was reached on this matter, but the busboy was identified by investigators.
His name was Stanley Tomaszewski,
and he was just 16 years old - too young to have been legally employed at the club.
Many were quick to blame Stanley for the incident, but he was ultimately cleared of all charges.
This was first and foremost because it could not be definitively determined
whether the bulb or the match had been the source of ignition,
but also because the initial source of ignition scarcely mattered: the interior of the club should
have been fireproof enough that a hot bulb or dropped match could not start a deadly blaze.
The real blame lay with the owner of the club. Barnet Welansky had cut many corners during
remodeling, flagrantly ignoring building codes and using unlicensed contractors.
He had done so without fear of any consequences. His connections to organized crime ensured
that his establishment would pass all safety inspections without a hitch.
Indeed, the Grove had been inspected little more than a week before the fire and declared "safe",
despite numerous highly-visible safety violations. As well as locked and blocked emergency exits and
exit doors that opened inwards rather than outwards the report noted that some materials used
to decorate the venue might have contributed to the fire. The decorative palm fronds, for example,
were known to be flammable, and had in fact caught fire many times before... although
on those occasions waiting staff had always been able to extinguish the flames before they spread.
Worse still, some faux leather seats inside the Grove were found to be made of
material that was not only not fireproof but which gave off a flammable gas when burned.
While what had caused the fire remained up for debate, the conditions which allowed it
to spread so terrifyingly quickly were obvious, and fell at the feet of the club's corrupt owner.
Walansky was tried and convicted of 19 counts of manslaughter.
The number was set at 19 because it would have been impractical to try him for the
deaths of all 492 victims - thus 19 were selected at random from the dead to represent the victims.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison,
but pardoned by the governor of Massachusetts after just four. In the end, then, the man most
responsible for the terrible loss of life at the Grove served less than three days for each victim.
The long-term effects of the fire were wide-ranging.
The treatment of burns victims was revolutionized by the incident.
Different treatments were administered to the victims at different hospitals,
and by comparing the results it was possible to see which treatments were the most effective.
The large number of victims provided statistical significance to the comparison
and allowed old and ineffective treatments to be thrown out in favor of more modern ones.
Two doctors who were working on the night of the Cocoanut Grove fire went on to invent a chart for
measuring the severity and coverage of burns - a chart which is still in use to this day.
Elsewhere, changes were made to building codes across the state of Massachusetts
in the wake of the disaster. Many of these changes subsequently spread to other states
and even worldwide. It is in large part because of the Cocoanut Grove fire,
for example, that in modern-day buildings all revolving doors are flanked by normal
outward-opening doors - a change which might have made all the difference on November 28th, 1942.
The victims present then stood little chance of escape and less chance still of recovery
from their injuries... but the lessons learned in the aftermath of their death are many and varied,
and give countless other potential victims a greater shot at survival, another chance at life.