In 1903 the Iroquois Theatre was opened in Chicago, Il. The theater, which was considered one of the most glamorous of the time, had three levels and was quite ornate. Despite the fact that it was billed as Absolutely Fireproof in advertisements, there were concerns to it's fire-worthiness raised in Fireproof Magazine, and by a Chicago Fire Department Captain who took an unofficial tour before the theater opened. Key concerns were the lack of extinguishers, sprinklers, alarms, water connections, or telephones. The only firefighting equipment in the theater were six canisters of Kilfyre, a dry chemical commonly used to extinguish chimney fires. Upon noting his concerns the Captain was told that nothing could be done, the theater already had a fire warden.
Another concern in the theater was the large iron gates which were locked, separating the sections during the show to prevent people from moving to better seats. Later it would found that the safety flues were nailed shut. On December 30, 1903 the fire-worthiness of the theater was put to the test when an arc lamp shorted during a presentation of the popular Drury Lane musical Mr. Bluebeard. That day the theater was packed, with at least 2000 people, most of which were children.
A fire started in the stage and a stage hand tried to douse it with Kilfyre, without success. Quickly the flames leaped to the ceiling and lit the highly flammable canvas scenes. Staff attempted to lower the curtain, which contained asbestos, but it snagged and would not close. Later tests on the curtain found that it was primarily wood pulp with some asbestos intermixed and would not have helped. Performers quickly worked to get the people out the theater. Many of those behind the stage escaped through a coal hatch and windows.
People panicked and rushed the fire exits, clogging them. Others were trapped against closed gates. Some who were on the top level made it to the roof, only to discover the fire escapes had not yet been completed. Many jumped to their deaths, a few escaped on ladders and boards to the neighboring building. Many actors tried to flee to a door that opened inward, but the rush of people pinned the door shut, trapping them. A passing railroad agent saw the disaster and the people trapped behind the door. Using tools he carried with him, he removed the hinges so that the actors and stage hands could escape. Then someone opened a large set of doors which were used to bring in the scenery. The rush of cold air created a fireball forced toward the audience by the fact that vents were nailed or wired shut. The fire went toward those that were opened.
As fire exits over flowed, people climbed over the bodies of the dead to escape, or to die themselves. When the fire was finally extinguished bodies ten deep were found at the exits. At lease 575 people died that night with an additional 30 dying of injuries shortly after the event.
In the aftermath there were allegations that fire inspectors were bribed, there was public outcry and there were many who were charged, including Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr. Three years later most of the charges were dismissed due to loopholes and inadequacies in the city's building and safety ordinances. Only one person was convicted of a crime, and that was a tavern keeper charged with robbing the dead.
-Professor Walter
Ben H. Atwell, a descriptive writer, wrote of the events as one who was there.
"Where at 3:15 yesterday beauty and fashion and the happy amusement seeker thronged the palatial playhouse to fall a few moments later before a deadly blast of smoke and flame sweeping over all with irresistible force, the dawn of the last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and an all pervading sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate the chilling, depressing volume from the streaked, grime-covered walls and the flame-licked ceilings overhead. Against this fearful background the few grim firemen or police, moving silently about the ruins, searching for overlooked dead or abandoned property, loomed up like fitful ghosts.
WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE.
"The progress of their noiseless and ghastly quest proved one circumstance survivors are too unsettled to realize. With the opening of the stage door to permit the escape of the members of the Mr. Bluebeard company and the breaking of the skylight above the flue-like scene loft that tops the stage, the latter was converted into a furnace through which a tremendous draft poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into the faces of the terrified audience. With exits above the parquet floor simply choked up with the crushed bodies of struggling victims, who made the first rush for safety, the packed hundreds in balcony and gallery faced fire that moved them up in waves.
"With a swirl that sounded death, the thin bright sheet of fire rolled on from stage to rear wall. It fed on the rich box curtains, seized upon the sparse veneer of subdued red and green decorations spread upon wall, ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof materials below clean and rolled on with a roar. Over seat tops and plush rail cushions it sped. Then it snuffed out, having practically nothing to feed upon save the tangled mass of wood scene frames, batons and paint-soaked canvas on the stage.
FEW REALIZED APPALLING RESULT.
"There firemen were directing streams of water that poured over the premises in great cascades in volume, aggregating many tons. A few streams were directed about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of flame still found material on which to feed. Silence reigned-the silence of death, but none realized the appalling story behind the awful calm.
"The stampede that followed the first alarm, a struggle in which most contestants were women and children, fighting with the desperation of death, terminated with the sudden sweep of the sea of flames across the body of the house. The awful battle ended before the irresistible hand of death, which fell upon contestants and those behind alike. Somehow those on the main floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the presence of narrower exits, stairways that precipitated the masses of humanity upon each other and the natural air current for the billows of flame to follow, spelled death to the occupants of the two balconies, the wave of flame, smoke and gas smote the multitude.
DROP WHERE THEY STAND.
"Dropping where they stood, most of the victims were consumed beyond recognition. Some who were protected from contact with the flames by masses of humanity piled upon them escaped death and were dragged out later by rescuers, suffering all manner of injury, The majority, however, who beheld the indescribably terrifying spectacle of the wave of death moving upon them through the air died then and there without a moment for preparation. Few survived to tell the tale. The blood-curdling cry of mingled prayers and curses, of pleas for help and meaningless shrieks of despair died away before the roar of the fire and the silence fell that greeted the firemen upon their entry.
"Survivors describe the situation as a parallel of the condition at Martinique when a wave of gas and fire rolled down the mountain side and destroyed everything in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was reversed, for the wave of death leaped from below and smote its victims, springing from the very air beneath them.
MANY HEROES ARE DEVELOPED.
"In a few minutes it was all over-all but the weeping. In those few minutes obscure people had evolved into heroes; staid business men drove out patrons to convert their stores into temporary hospitals and morgues; others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into improvised ambulances; stocks of drugs, oils and blankets were showered upon the police to aid in relief work and a corps of physicians and surgeons sufficient to the needs of an army had organized.
"Rescues little short of miraculous were accomplished and life and limb were risked by public servants and citizens with no thought of personal consequences. Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the extent of the horror was known and before the sickening report spread throughout the city that the greatest holocaust ever known in the history of theatricals had fallen upon Chicago.
"While the streets began to crowd for blocks around with weeping and heartbroken persons in mortal terror because of knowledge that loved ones had attended the performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons hurried the injured to hospitals. Before long they were called upon to perform the more gruesome task of removing the dead. In wagon loads the latter were carted away. Undertaking establishments both north, south and west of the river threw open their doors.
DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.
" Piled in windows in the angle of the stairway where the second balcony refugees were brought face to face and in a death struggle with the occupants of the first balcony, the dead covered a space' fifteen or twenty feet square and nearly seven feet in depth. All were absolutely safe from the fire itself when they met death, having emerged from the theater proper into the separate building containing the foyer. In this great court there was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a few feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute monument to the powers of terror. Above and about towered .shimmering columns and facades in polished marble, whose cold and unharmed surfaces seemed to bespeak contempt for human folly. In that portion of the Iroquois structure the only physical evidences of damages were a few windows broken during the excitement.
EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES.
"To that pile of dead is attributed the great loss of life within. The bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind. N either age nor youth, sex, quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle in the doorway . The gray and aged, rich, poor, young and those obviously invalids in life lay in a tangled mass all on an awful footing. of equality in silent annihilation.
"Within and above equal terrors were encountered in what at first seemed countless victims. Lights, patience and hard work brought about some semblance of system and at last word was given that the last body had been removed from the charnel house. A large police detail surrounded the place all night and with the break of day search of the premises was renewed, none being admitted save by presentation of a written order from Chief of Police O'Neill. Fire engines pumped away removing the lake of water that flooded the basement to the depth of ten feet. As the flood was lowered it began to be apparent that the basement was free of dead.
SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR.
"Searchers gazing down from the heights of the upper balcony surveyed the scene of death below with horror stamped upon their faces. Fire had left its terrifying blight in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests the burned-out crater of an extinct volcano. In the wreckage, the scattered garments and purses, fragments of charred bodies and other debris strewn within thousands of bits of brilliantly colored glass, lay as they fell shattered in the fight against the flames. A few skulls were seen.
FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES.
"Five bushel baskets were filled with women's purses gathered by the police. A huge pile of garments was removed to a near-by saloon, where an officer guards them pending removal to some more appropriate place. The shoes and overshoes picked up among the seats fill two barrels to overflowing.
"The fire manifested itself in the flies above the stage during the second act. The double octette was singing 'In the Pale Moonlight' when the tragedy swept mirth and music aside, to give way to a more somber and frightful performance. Confusion on the stage, panic in the auditorium, phenomenal spread of the incipient blaze, failure of the asbestos fire curtain to fall in place when lowered followed in rapid progress, with the holocaust as the climax."
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