Cocoanut Grove Fire – November 28, 1942

Fires are a part of our everyday reality. We see them on the news and read about them in our local newspapers. In fact, just Monday morning I heard about an apartment fire in Boston and the story of a heroic passerby who saved seven residents.

(Image Credit: Commandsafety.com)

This reality is not likely to change. Even with the most fire-proof materials and systems, there will always be devices that fail or people that cause accidents or do stupid things (aka arson). What are engineers and building designers to do?

Nowadays, continuously improved fire-safety codes and standards exist to reduce the creation and spread of fires. Unfortunately, the simplest of these standards weren't followed until after hundreds of people lost their lives in a number of catastrophic fires. The worst of these was the Cocoanut Grove fire (also in Boston), way back in 1942.

The Incident

On November 28, 1942, a famous Boston nightclub called the Cocoanut Grove caught fire in the midst of its operation. Apparently, a busboy looking for a light socket had lit a match to see what he was doing, catching some very flammable decorations on fire. The flames quickly spread across the sealing and along the floor, moving at speeds up to 20mph.

The Cocoanut Grove aftermath… - Image Credit: Boston.com photo gallery -->

The chaos that followed involved guests and workers racing and crawling to exits that were either locked or became bottlenecked and largely impassible. All in all, the fire killed 492 people and injured many more. It is considered the second-worst building fire in American history next to the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago (1903).

The Cause

While the busboy's match and the extremely flammable decorations and materials were the initial cause of the fire, a large portion of the resulting casualties could be attributed to the design of the exit doors.

Most of the doors for commercial buildings today have push-bar mechanisms and open out. This design prevents bottlenecking or opening problems in the event of a disaster and the associated panic. Fire-exit doors have crash bars which (as the name implies) allow people to literally run into them to open the doors up and get out.

The design of the doors in the Cocoanut Grove swung inward instead of outward. This made them extremely difficult to open, considering that hundreds of panicked people were trying to push their way to the exit. Some estimates say a large percentage of deaths could have been prevented with proper door design.

Lessons Learned?

Apart from the doors, there were many other safety violations to blame for the tragedy. The club was rated for a maximum occupancy of 600 persons, but on this Saturday (of Thanksgiving) it was packed with some say more than a thousand people, though the exact number is unknown. In addition, some of the exits were locked, and many others were both improperly marked and over-decorated.

In the aftermath of the fire, a number of new safety standards for buildings were developed nationwide in the U.S. These included requirements for outward swinging door designs, sprinkler systems in nightclubs, and accessible exits marked by emergency lighting in commercial buildings. These simple safety design features are often taken for granted today, but the Cocoanut Grove is just one terrifying reminder of why we need them.

Sources:

Boston.com - The Cocoanut Grove Inferno

NFPA - Large Building Fires and Subsequent Code Changes

Wikipedia - Cocoanut Grove Fire

Fire Exit Image - Happy Tourist

Crash bar Image - 512 Locksmith