Cocoanut Grove Fire
The Cocoanut Grove was Boston's premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s. On November 28, 1942, this club was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in US history, killing 492 people (which was 32 more than the building's authorized capacity) and injuring hundreds more. It was also the second-worst single-building fire in American history; only the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago had a higher death toll, of 602.
The enormity of the tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced the events of World War II in newspaper headlines. In both fires, most of those who lost their lives would have survived had the existing safety codes been fully enforced. The tragedy led to a reform of safety standards and codes across the country, and major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of burn victims.
Read more about Cocoanut Grove Fire: The Club, The Owner, November 28, 1942, The Fire, Victims and Escapes, Investigation, Advances in Burn and Psychiatric Care, Memorial
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Where can you see a wisp of smoke
without a fire?”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a case like the present.”
—William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879)