Cocoanut Grove Fire - Boston, MA - Famous Fires on Waymarking.com

This horrific fire rocked the nation, even displacing World War II from the front pages, as the massive loss of life in such a tragic fire struck with the force of a blitzkrieg on the consciousness of a city and a country. Today, few could locate the site on a small side street near the intersection of Piedmont and Church Streets in Boston's Bay Village Neighborhood. The only memorial is a small brass plaque embedded in the sidewalk, installed in 1993 by the Bay Village Neighborhood Association. It is easily missed even by someone looking for it.

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The Cocoanut Grove was an elegant nightclub, but it had formerly been a speakeasy, so many of the windows and doors had been bricked over, welded shut, or boarded over. Though lavish in appearance, cheap, flammable decorations were used such as paper palm trees and streamers. Though the rated capacity was only 460 people, more than twice that number were crammed into the nightclub when about 10:00 p.m. a 16 year-old busboy light a match in order to see to replace an electric light bulb in the lower level Melody Lounge igniting the overhead paper ceiling.

The fire became a fast moving inferno and within fifteen minutes had left nearly 500 people dead and scores injured. About the only working exit was the main revolving door, which quickly jammed, and dozens of people were jammed against it, as they were at other exits that had been disabled. Some 187 firefighters responded to the blaze, but there was little they could do for those trapped inside.

In the aftermath of the fire, and the extensive investigations, new laws were enacted in Boston and the rest of the nation vastly overhauling unsafe construction and operation of public places. New treatments were developed for burn victims, and research into the psychological treatment of victims of tragedies were realized.

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THE COCOANUT GROVE

Erected By
Bay Village
Neighborhood Association
1993

In memory of the more than 490 people who died as a result of the Cocoanut Grove fire on November 18, 1942. As a result of this terrible tragedy major changes were made in the fire codes and improvements in the treatment of burn victims not only in Boston but across the nation.

PHOENIX OUT OF THE ASHES

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It is ironic that a little over fifty years later, another similar fire involving flammable insulation, overcrowding, and blocked exits ocurred at the Station Nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, a few hours south of Boston, on Feb. 20, 2003, resulting in the loss of 100 lives.

And before that, on May 28, 1977, the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Kentucky, went up in a blaze in which 165 persons died and over 200 were injured.

Dozens of books and hundreds of articles and reports have been written about the Cocoanut Grove Fire, and many are maintained in personal collections of survivors, or those involved in the aftermath in some way. I have personally seen shelf after shelf of notebooks, and other material gathered by the son of the lead investigator on the case.

Here are just a few of the online resources, each giving a piece of the picture from which a whole perspective can be gained.

Wikipedia - Cocoanut Grove Fire
Boston Globe 1992 - The Cocoanut Grove Inferno 50th Anniv.
Celbrate Boston - Cocoanut Grove Fire
Fire News - 64th Anniversay of the Cocoanut Grove Fire

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Type of Structure: Private Building Fire Date: 11/28/1942 Structure status: Plaque Cause of Fire: A busboy lighting a match to see to replace an electric bulb Documentation of the fire: [Web Link] Other: Not listed Construction Date: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/08/2011 NorStar visited it