|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Cocoanut Grove fire in The entire Cocoanut Grove club was decorated
with paper palm trees, a disaster waiting to happen. It eventually did on that
Saturday night a little bit after ten o'clock, as a couple of overzealous
lovers, looking for a dark spot to cuddle, unscrewed a light bulb in the
Melody Lounge, located in the downstairs section of the Cocoanut Grove club.
A busboy named Stanley Tomaszewski was ordered to screw the light back in.
The bulb was located among some of the decorative but highly flammable palm
fronds that were all over the club, and when Waiters tried to put the fire out with water
but were unsuccessful, as the amused patrons looked on, not realizing how
serious the situation would become in an incredibly short span of time. The
fire picked up steam and made its way quickly across the ceiling and up a
stairwell into the Cocoanut Grove dining room. A woman screamed and ran
across the floor, her hair burning, and then complete chaos ensued. The
flames were everywhere and panicked patrons headed for the exits. But the
doors that came out on the side streets had been welded shut to keep anyone
from skipping out on their food and bar tabs. A huge plate glass window that
could have been smashed and used as an escape route was boarded up tight. The
main entrance to the Cocoanut Grove was a big revolving door, and to this
portal the majority of the people flocked as the fire was
everywhere within five minutes of its first being discovered. Scores of people were being overcome by the
flames and the smoke and they fell, trampled upon as the throng pressed to
escape. The main entrance became a deathtrap, as only a precious few were
able to get out the revolving doors before they jammed. People fell upon one
another and stacked up like cordwood, many died where they lay by the glass
doors. Firefighters tried to pull bodies from the door, only to have legs and
arms pull right away form the charred corpses. In the end, the firefighters
had to actually dismantle the revolving doors to gain access to the Cocoanut
Grove. Any side doors that were unlocked opened inwards, and as the people
pushed against one another in the horrified frenzy to get out, those closest
to the doors could not open them due to the crush of the crowd. Among the dead was movie star Buck Jones,
famous for playing in the Westerns of the day. Jones had been fighting a cold
but had been talked into going to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub and he paid
for the decision with his life, dying right at his table, overcome by smoke.
The Boston College football team, number one in the country, had been
scheduled to be at the Cocoanut Grove that evening to celebrate their
anticipated undefeated season, but Holy Cross had whipped them 55-12 that
afternoon and the plans were cancelled, sparing them the horror of fighting
the flames to survive. A Coast Guardsman named Clifford Johnson had helped
many to safety, going back into the burning Cocoanut Grove fire to rescue
people. He suffered awful burns over half of his body, many to the bone, and
it took him almost two years to recover. Johnson married one of the nurses
that helped him regain his health and he was able to walk out of the burn
unit on his own. The area hospitals filled with the dying and
the injured. Many passed away from the effects of smoke inhalation. When all
was said and done and the dead were finally identified and counted, the toll
was 492, a number that surely would have been higher if not for a mock attack
by German forces the week before that had been staged to test the
preparedness of the hospitals, meaning that there were plenty of extra
supplies on hand to treat the incoming patients. Even with this level of
readiness, of the first 150 people brought into Mass General that night, 150
didn't make it. Hearings were held to find the cause of the
blaze and who was responsible for the conditions that killed so many. The
busboy that many suspected had unintentionally started the fire was let off
the hook, but the club's owner, Barney Welansky, was not. It was found that
the Cocoanut Grove was well over capacity, the busboys were under legal age,
an inspection of the club's palm tree decorations showed that they were
highly flammable, and an electrician that had done most of the wiring of the
club was unlicensed. Also, the plate glass window had been boarded up,
costing hundreds their lives. Welansky and eleven other men were indicted for
their role in the Cocoanut Grove fire, but only he was convicted. He was
sentenced to a dozen years, but he was let out after less than four, dying
from cancer that would kill him nine weeks after his release from prison. Because of the Cocoanut Grove fire, new laws
were enacted that banned flammable decorations and inward swinging exit
doors. It became mandatory to have always visible exit signs and revolving
doors that were a primary entrance had to have a normal door on the side. But
these laws are only as effective as the people that enforce them, as seen by
the recent death of 100 nightclub patrons in the Rhode Island Station
nightclub fire. An ironic side note to the Cocoanut Grove fire was the fate
of the heroic Clifford Johnson. He returned to his native |
|
Union Fire Company