1903 — Dec 30, Fire, Suffocation, Trampling, Iroquois Theater, Chicago, IL — 602

—  700  Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac 1905. “Great Fires, 1904…Notable Fires,” XX, p. 477.[1]

—  602  Barlay. Fire: An International Report. Brattleboro: Stephen Greene Press, 1973, p. 25.[2]

—  602  Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database.

—  602  Chertkoff and Kushigian. Don’t Panic: The Psychology of Emergency Egress. (Chapter 3)

—  602  Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America.  1973, p. 141.

—  602  Drabek, Thomas E. The Human Side of Disaster. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010, 33.

—  602  Groves, Iroquois Theater Fire, 2006.

—  602  National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History.  1996.

—  602  NFPA. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.

—  602  NFPA. U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. December 2008, p. 21.

—  602  National Fire Sprinkler Association.  F.Y.I.  1999, p. 6

—  602  Smith. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America...  1978, p. 109.

—  602  Wikipedia, “Iroquois Theater Fire.”

–>600  Brandt. Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theater Fire of 1903. 2006

—  600  Elliott. “The Need of State Building Codes.” Safety Engineering, 26/3, Sep 1913, p. 142.

—  600  History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago”

—  600  Indus. Comm. WI. “Why the State Regulates Buildings,” Safety Engineering, 1914, 283.

—  600  Iowa Recorder. “City Bowed in Grief.” January 13, 1904.

–<600  Public Opinion, “The Grim Harvest of Death,” Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, Jan 17, 1904, p. 4.

—  600  Forster. “America’s Challenge: Loss of Life…Fire…” Safety Engineering, 41/1, Jan 1921

—  600  Gunn. Chapter 54: “Chicago, Illinois, fire.”

–>600  Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and NY: Chambers, 1992, p. 97.

—  591  Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.

—  587  Walker, John. “The Iroquois Theater Fire: Entrances and Exits,” Disasters. 1973, p. 110.

—  580  Barlay. Fire: An International Report. Brattleboro: Stephen Greene Press, 1973, p. 139.

—  575  Decatur Daily Review (IL).  “Theater Death Toll in Past Disasters…,” Jan 30, 1922, p.1.

Fire

–>200  Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and NY: Chambers, 1992, p. 97.

Trampling and Suffocation

— 400  Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and NY: Chambers, 1992, p. 97.

 

Narrative Information

Country Beautiful: “…during Christmas week, many families attended the special afternoon perfor­mance of the light opera, “Mr. Bluebeard,” which featured the theater company’s popular comedian, Eddie Foy. Children were on Christmas vacations from school and parents deemed it an appropriate time to take the children on an outing to the theater.” (Country Beautiful  Great Fires, 1973, 141)

Groves: “On November 23, 1903, the Iroquois Theater opened in Chicago.[3] Dubbed a “virtual temple of beauty” by the Chicago Tribune, the Iroquois was reportedly fireproof.[4] In a rush to get the theater open quickly, however, the theater management did not finish many basic fire precautions. Most notably, the theater had no fire alarm or sprinklers and the emergency smoke vents above the stage were nailed shut. Six weeks later, the Iroquois Theater was home to the deadliest fire in Chicago history.”  (Groves 2006, Iroquois.)

“The Iroquois Theater presented Mr. Bluebeard, a musical comedy, to a standing-room-only crowd of over 1,900 people[5] on December 30, 1903.[6] Another 400 performers[7] and stagehands were crowded into the basement dressing rooms and backstage areas.[8]  (Groves 2006, Iroquois.)

“Halfway through the show,[9] a floodlight over the stage exploded, setting fire to the red velvet curtain.” (Groves 2006, Iroquois Theater Fire)

Another account has it that “The stage was partially darkened for a moonlight scene, and a powerful spotlight, followed the actors. Part of the stage drapery came into close contact with the light and caught fire.”[10]  Some stagehands saw the fire and tried to smother it with their hands and other primitive means; however, the fire was more than they could handle. The audience was made aware of the fire as a flaming piece of drapery swung across the stage.” (Country Beautiful, 1973, 137.)

Groves: “The fire quickly spread to the oil-painted wood and canvas set pieces hanging in the catwalks and soon flaming debris was falling onto the stage….Despite pleas from the show’s star to remain calm,[11] the audience panicked and attempted to flee the theater, just as smoke began filling the auditorium”  (Groves 2006, Iroquois Theater Fire)

Moberly Daily Monitor, Dec 31: “The fire in itself up to this time was not serious and possibly could have been checked had not the asbestos curtain failed to work.[12]  As soon as the fire was discovered Eddie Foy, the chief comedian of the company, shouted to lower the curtain and this was immediately done.  It descended about half way and then stuck.  The fire thus was given practically a flue through which a strong draft was settling, aided by the doors which had been thrown open in the front of the theater.  With a roar and a bound the flames shot through the opening over the heads of the people on the first floor and, reaching clear up to those in the first balcony, caught them and burned them to death where they sat.  Immediately following this rush of flames there came an explosion which lifted the entire roof of the theater from its walls, shattering the great skylight into fragments….It is believed that the explosion was caused by the flames coming into contact with the gas reservoirs of the theater causing them to burst.”  (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” Dec. 31, 1903, p. 2)

Groves: “The fleeing audience members did not get far. Many of the exits were locked[13] or hidden behind heavy, decorative curtains. Other doors were unlocked, but they only opened inward, trapping the victims in the jam-packed hallways. Some theatergoers were even trapped by illegal, accordion-style metal gates that the theater management locked during the shows to keep audience members in the upper balconies from sneaking downstairs for a better view of the show.[14] As the flames spread into the auditorium, hundreds of theatergoers were burned to death, while hundreds more trapped in the hallways suffocated from the smoke.

“As there was no fire alarm in the theater, a stagehand had to run to the nearest firehouse to report that the theater was in flames.[15] When the first firefighters arrived at the theater they found it difficult to enter the auditorium because of the number of bodies stacked up at the doors. Once inside, they were able to quickly douse the flames, as the fire has already consumed most of the flammable materials in the theater. (Groves 2006)

Moberly Daily Monitor, Dec 31: “The building was so full of smoke when the firemen first arrived that the full extent of the catastrophe was not immediately grasped until a fireman and a newspaper man crawled up the stairway leading to the balcony… As they reached the doorway the fireman…seized his companion by the arm, exclaiming: ‘Good God, man, don’t walk on their faces.’ The two men tried vainly to get through the door, which was jammed with dead women piled higher than either of their heads….The two men immediately hurried to the floor below and informed Chief Musham, of the fire department that the dead bodies were piled high in the balcony and prompt assistance must be rendered if any of them were to be saved.

“The chief at once called upon all of his men in the vicinity to abandon work on the fire and come at once to the rescue.  Over 200 lights were quickly carried into the building and the work of rescue commenced. (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” Dec. 31, 1903, p. 2)

Country Beautiful: “People crowded onto the fire escape from the doomed balconies but the fire was shooting out from windows below them and that route was useless. All were out of range of aerial ladders and still more people crowded onto the platform. Painters in the next building provided ladder-bridges across the alley for the trapped people. “Ladders, planks, ropes, poles, everything that could possibly be secured to assist these poor creatures in their battle for life was rigged and turned into bridges, but few got across alive,” a newspaper reported.”  (Country Beautiful, 1973, 137.)

Moberly Daily Monitor, Dec 31: “So rapidly were the bodies brought down that in an hour there were two streams of men in and out of the door, the one carrying bodies, the other composed of men returning to get more.  Although all the patrol wagons and every ambulance owned by the city was pressed into service, they were utterly inadequate to carry away the dead and in a short time there was a line of corpses 30 feet long piled two and three high on the sidewalk in front of the theater.  It was found necessary in order to convey the bodies rapidly to the morgue and to the various undertaking establishments to press trucks into service…. One large truck ordinarily  used for conveying freight to depots was so heavily loaded with dead in front of the theater that the two large horses attached to it were unable to start and the police were compelled to assist by tugging at the wheels.” (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” Dec. 31, 1903, p. 2)

Groves: “Once the fire was out, one firefighter apparently shouted: ‘If there is any living person in here, groan or make a sound.’ His request was met by silence.” (Groves 2006)

“In the end, 602 people, mainly women and children[16], were killed in the fire.[17] At one locked exit, firefighters counted 200 bodies stacked ten high and twenty deep.[18] (Groves 2006)

Moberly Daily Monitor, Dec 31: “As the police removed layer after layer of dead in these doorways the sight became too much for even for police and firemen, hardened as they are to such sights, to endure.  The bodies were in such as inextricable mass and so tightly were they jammed between the sides of the door and the walls that it was impossible to lift them one by one and carry them out.  The only possible thing to do was to seize a limb or some other portion of the body and pull with main strength.  Men worked at the task with tears running down their cheeks and the sobs of the rescuers could be heard even in the hall below where this awful scene was being enacted.  A number of the men were compelled to abandon their task and give it over to others whose nerves had not as yet been shaken by the awful experience….”  (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” Dec. 31, 1903, p. 2)

Friday, January 8: “As Chicago began to recover from the shock and stunning grief of the Iroquois Theater calamity, demands became loud from both people and press for the exemplary punishment of all the men who would seem in any way responsible for the death of nearly 600 human beings…. Late Friday night Will J. Davis and Harry J. Powers, proprietors and managers of the Iroquois Theater, and George Williams, city building inspector, were placed under arrest on the criminal charge of manslaughter.  Arthur E. Hull, who lost a wife and three children, with their maid, in the holocaust, swore to the complaint on which the warrants were issued.  Ten of the employees of the theater are also in jail, and many of the chorus girls of the ‘Mr. Blue Beard’ company, who were on the stage when the fatal fire started, are under restraint, being held as witnesses.  According to the Tribune [Chicago] an inadequately protected ‘spot light’ machine, close to which hung the frayed edge of the arch draperies, made the combination that caused the fire.  William McMullen, the man who operated the ‘spot light,’ is under arrest with a charge of manslaughter against him.”  (Iowa Recorder, “Arrests Are Made,” January 13, 1904)

Saturday, January 9: “Aghast at the possibilities of another theater horror, the Chicago authorities on Saturday sought the safety of a multitude of play-goers by closing the doors of every amusement house in Chicago.  Not one of the thirty-six theaters and concert halls of the city was open for business that night…. The action, which was taken in the name of the public weal by Mayor Harrison, means a suspension of performances for weeks in some of the theaters, months in others where the structures will have to be remodeled, while in others nothing will suffice but a tearing down and a rebuilding.” (Iowa Recorder, “City Bowed…,” Jan. 13, 1904.)

Sunday January 10:  “More funerals were held in Chicago Sunday than ever before in a single day in an American city.  According to the burial permits of the health department, 256 bodies were buried that day in local cemeteries or shipped out of town.  Of these 226 were bodies of those who had lost their lives in the Iroquois Theater fire.  Funerals of fire victims began Friday, when eighty-nine were buried.  One hundred and ninety-seven were interred Saturday.  In the three days given over to burials, funeral services were said over 512 of the bodies, 283 of which have been placed in Chicago burying grounds and 229 shipped to a distance.  But eighty identified dead and six unidentified remained on Monday to be consigned to their last resting places.  All the identified dead were interred by Tuesday.” (Iowa Recorder, “City Bowed in Grief,” January 13, 1904.)

Groves: “The subsequent investigations into the fire uncovered numerous troubling facts, including the lack of sprinklers and fire alarms and the locked exits. In the coming months and years, many laws were enacted in response to the Iroquois Theater Fire, including laws requiring mandatory theater upgrades including outward-opening doors that remain unlocked, exit lights, automatic sprinklers, fire alarm systems, and flame resistant scenery, props, and curtains.”  (Groves 2006)

Moberly Daily Monitor, Dec 31: “Will J. Davis, manager of the theater, said after the catastrophe that if the people had remained in their seats and had not been excited by the cry of fire not a single life would have been lost.  This is, however, contradicted by the statements of the firemen, who found numbers of people sitting in their seats, their faces directed toward the stage as if the performance was still going on.  It is the opinion of the firemen that these persons had been suffocated at once by the flow of gas which came from behind the asbestos curtain.” (Moberly Daily Monitor, “Theater…,” 1903)

A Coroner’s Inquest was begun within two weeks. “Witnesses heard told and retold in terrible detail the story of the fire and panic.  Out of the mass of evidence the main fact apparent was the utter carelessness, blundering and criminal negligence that resulted in the sacrifice of human life….It will probably take two weeks to gather together the mass of evidence as to the cause of the fire and the reason for its quick spread.  More than 200 witnesses will testify at the inquest, which is conducted in person by Coroner Traeger and Deputy Coroner Buckley.  The witnesses include actors, stage hands, spectators who were in the playhouse and officials and other attaches of the theater….”  (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.

“Harry J. Powers and Will J. Davis, Chicago managers of the Iroquois Theater…made their first statements under oath Wednesday…. In answer to…inquiries both men professed to have no personal knowledge of the management of the theater; were uninformed as to whether employees had instructions for action at time of fires or panic; were uninformed as to what fire apparatus was in the house; had only given most general instructions to their subordinate manager, and did not know how many people were in the theater when the fire broke out….”  (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

“Chicago Fire Department Attorney Monroe Fulkerson submitted an official statement on behalf of the Department to the effect that:

Evidence submitted under oath proves conclusively that had the skylights and ventilators over the stage of the Iroquois Theater been open, and the openings over the auditorium been closed, there would have been no fire in the audience room of the playhouse last Wednesday and no lives need have been lost by panic. (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

Fire Department testimony was also presented to the effect, according to the press, “That there had been a previous fire at the theater, and that the same obstruction at that time prevented the fire curtain’s being thrown between the stage and the audience….That, with one or two notable exceptions, the employees of the theater deserted their posts, or did not understand what should have been their duties at such a time.  That there is no evidence that there had been any fire drill or systematic organization of the theater employees for the protection of the public in an emergency. That there was no fire alarm box on the stage, or in the theater building. (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

“Mr. Noonan, business manager of the theater, who also testified, said he knew that people were allowed to stand up on the lower floor back of the last row of seats, but insisted that he did not authorize Head Usher Dusenberry to permit this. He also admitted that two of the main doors in the second tier in the foyer were locked, but as to whether the several doors barring the way to other exits were locked he was not sure.” (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” Jan. 13, 1904.)

History.com: “In the aftermath of the disaster, Williams was later charged and convicted of misfeasance. Chicago’s mayor was also indicted, though the charges didn’t stick. The theater owner was convicted of manslaughter due to the poor safety provisions; the conviction was later appealed and reversed. In fact, the only person to serve any jail time in relation to this disaster was a nearby saloon owner who had robbed the dead bodies while his establishment served as a makeshift morgue following the fire.” (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

Safety Engineering: “The use of a dry product tube on burning scenery in the Iroquois Theater is believed to be responsible for the loss of 600 lives.  A soda-acid extinguisher conveniently at hand probably would have prevented that holocaust.” (Safety Engineering. “America’s Challenge:  Loss of Life from Fire…,” Vol. 41, No. 1, Jan 1921.)

Elliott: “In the burning of the Iroquois Theater 600 lives were lost. The principal cause for the loss of life was due to the system of ventilation employed.  In a properly ventilated theater the fresh air is introduced close to the floor level and near the stage. The vitiated air is removed at the rear of the seats and at the highest possible point in the au­ditorium. The natural draught, there­fore, is toward the auditorium and up­ward through the balcony and gallery. The natural draught is usually accelerated by a plenum or exhaust fan through which the air travels at a rate of about 1,200 feet per minute. With the pros­cenium opening unprotected by a fire curtain and the automatic ventilator in­operative the natural circulation of air drew the gases and fire from the stage and suffocated and burned 600 human beings.” (Elliott. “The Need of State Building Codes.” Safety Engineering, 26/3, Sep 1913, 142.)

Public Opinion: “Nearly six hundred people lost their lives in a fire which occurred on Wednesday of last week in the Iroquois theater, Chicago. The house was crowded with an afternoon audience composed largely of women and children, and it was among them that the greater number of deaths were caused by suffocation and crushing in the mad attempt to reach the doors. The fire began with a small blaze in the stage draperies, supposed to have been caused by a calcium or arc light. This was followed by the explosion of a gas tank, and in a few minutes after the first alarm the smoke and flames were sweeping toward the galleries. Attempts to lower the asbestos curtain separat­ing the stage from the auditorium were unavailing on ac­count of some defect in the mechanism or to a strong draft toward the seats which jammed the curtain rod against the sides of the stage.

“The theater building was but little damaged except by scorching. It was a new building, conforming in all re­spects but one to the most advanced ideas in theater con­struction, the only fault in its design being that there was no shaft or vent over the stage by which flame and smoke would have been drawn upward and away from the au­dience. The exits were ample in number, but many of them were locked or inaccessible, and before many of them the dead were found in ghastly piles….

“The Chicago Evening Post approves Mayor Harrison’s action in closing all the other Chicago theaters, but it adds that “it is a bitter reflection that hundreds of lives had to be sacrificed to bring about this simple result”:

Without the faintest desire to prejudge the case, or to presume guilt where the law adheres to the theory of inno­cence, it may be said that the evidence already available points to negligence, carelessness, and want of skill and organization as no small factors in the awful Iroquois catastrophe. There is but little comfort for the right-minded in the thought that responsibility for the terrible disaster may be fixed on a few individuals who, after all, followed the general American practice and took advan­tage of the slackness and indifference of the public au­thorities. The community is too sorrowful to be vindic­tive or cruel. While the law must take its course, the question of punishing possible misconduct should be, and undoubtedly is, subordinated by most citizens to the ques­tion of future safety and prevention.

“In more senses than one,” says the Chicago News, “theatrical managers have been playing with fire for a great many years”:

The woeful story of the Iroquois disaster shows upon its face two startling facts. The safety appliances that were provided did not work. Those appliances were as­tonishingly meager. In this day every well-equipped busi­ness establishment, mill, or manufactory has its auto­matic fire extinguishers to flood it from roof to basement when a fire breaks out. Fire extinguishers are ready in every nook and corner for instant use. There is a care­fully drilled and adequately led fire company selected from the workers in the building, and its members know pre­cisely what to do upon the outbreak of a fire. Yet this most modern of theaters provided a patent preparation in small tubes which had no effect upon the flames and an asbestos curtain which stuck in its grooves! The dead can not be brought back to life. Nothing that can be done now can quench the grief which has fallen upon so many hundreds of homes. But this awful lesson must transform the business of amusing the public into some­thing more than a mere thing of surface glitter and blind chance. Every theater in this country must be thoroughly overhauled and made safe. Then it must be kept safe.

“Lessons To Be Learned

“At the first announcement of this appalling calamity, it was simply beyond human comprehension,” the Chicago Record-Herald says. “The whole city was like a home stricken with sudden death where the loss is only half realized by the rebellious or benumbed senses”:

But the thought for the living must not be entirely lost in the thought for the dead, and even now, in the midst of this sorrow, there must be an emphatic insistence upon two points that relate to the question of the future security of the public. First, the responsibility for the tragedy must be fixed if it can be fixed. And, second, regard should be had for the broad general subject of remedies and prevention as it concerns all playhouses and other places of public assemblage. There are lessons to be learned from the visitation which should govern the con­duct of the authorities in the future and lead to the enact­ment of any legislation that may be needed for the pro­tection of the people.

“The one consolation that the Inter Ocean can see in the tragedy is that its incidents leave no room for re­flection upon the bravery and courage of its victims or of those who came upon the scene in the capacity of rescuers:

The little that can ever be known regarding the con­duct of the self-possessed few within the building reflects no discredit upon American manhood and womanhood, while the acts of valor which must be recorded in the re­cital of the work of rescue outside the building are such as to leave but one impression, and a lasting and good one, of the resourcefulness and courage to be found in an aver­age crowd of our citizens. If anything can console a community stricken as this is, if anything can lighten the heavy burden which thousands of our people have been so suddenly called upon to bear, it must come with the knowledge that nothing which the bravery, the ingenuity, the energy—the tenderness—of man could accomplish was left undone at the supreme moment.

“The Chronicle’s comment leads one to infer that it at­taches no blame to the theater managers and owners.

“Safer Theaters Demanded

“Every city in the land has extended its sympathy to Chicago in the most earnest words that could be em­ployed. And after this has been done the universal dis­position is to examine local conditions in the light of the Iroquois theater disaster and to begin an agitation which will render our theaters safer in the future. More effec­tive means of emptying playhouses is, in the opinion of the Boston Transcript, the improvement that should be aimed at. “What we want,” the Transcript says, “is not ‘fire­proof’ theaters, but panic-proof theaters. We can not pre­vent panics, but we can build so that they shall be without reasonable excuse and so that resultant dangers shall be reduced almost if not quite to the vanishing point.” The Philadelphia Ledger agrees with this opinion, but it ad­mits that even if theater exits were larger and more num­erous it would do little good, because people remember only the way by which they came, and all rush instinc­tively toward the one main entrance. The Ledger makes the valuable suggestion, however, that audiences should be regularly dismissed through all the different exits to ac­custom the public to their use.

“In the opinion of the New York Evening Post, the “one point from which public attention must not be di­verted” is that the fire, however it started, had tons of combustible material to feed on:

Managers will put such matter into theaters so long as the law permits them to do so with impunity. They are not men of murderous intention, yet in their recklessness or ignorance they may be almost as dangerous as an in­sane person with homicidal proclivities. But all the re­sponsibility does not rest upon them. The public can defend itself, if it chooses, through the legislatures. If it can not be roused on such an occasion as this to demand the enactment and enforcement of penal laws compelling the proper chemical treatment of all stage trappings, it must take the consequences.

“Papers everywhere echo the statement made by the Pittsburg Dispatch, that “The fearful example at Chicago should cause every city in the land to inspect its theaters, and if any of them fall short of the requirements of safety, to make them conform to the standard in every respect.’ In several cities theaters have already been closed and managers arrested because they had not complied with the building laws. It develops, as might be expected, that all our cities have adequate laws, the aim of which is to render public places of amusement as safe as possible, but that everywhere, except perhaps in Boston, these laws are obeyed in a perfunctory manner if at all; that exits are constantly kept locked; that “asbestos curtains” are often made of painted burlap, and that in many cases stages and auditoriums are separated only by wooden partitions. It appears from an examination of local papers that every city has one or more theaters which are known to be veri­table death traps, and the present agitation, if it does noth­ing more, will have the result of closing such places.” (Public Opinion, “The Grim Harvest of Death,” Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, Jan 17, 1904, p. 4.)

Public Opinion: “Thursday, January 14. Fifteen Chicago churches were closed in consequence of the Iroquois fire…” (Public Opinion, “News of the World,” Vol. 36, No. 3, Jan 1904, p. 87.)

Smith: “Of course grief-stricken and angry Chicagoans de­manded that an investigation be made into this tragedy, and the findings were quickly translated into a new fire code. No more would Chicago allow doors in public places to open inward—instead they would be equipped with easily operated “panic bars” and open outward. Exits were to be clearly marked and totally unobstructed. Theater personnel were to be drilled in directing people out in quick and orderly fashion. Automatic sprinkler systems were made mandatory. It had taken Chicago twenty-seven years and twice the casualties to learn the Brooklyn Theatre lesson. Luckily, many other cities, both in the United States and all over the world, heeded the lesson of the Iroquois in their theaters—and have thus probably saved thousands of lives.” (Smith.  Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America...  1978, p. 109.)

Fireproof Magazine: “The fire in the Casino Theater, New York, which would have duplicated the Iroquois disaster if it had happened two hours later, has revealed the fact that all the wrath and grief that swept over the country a year ago have been practically barren. The most stringent rules for the safety of life were adopted in New York, as in other cities, after the crime in Chicago, but hardly anything seems to have come of them. Theatrical managers have become brazen in their defiance of public sentiment. The firm that owned the show which was on the Iroquois stage at the time of the fire, as well as part of the theater itself, actually brought a libel suit against a paper that ventured to print a cartoon on the subject, and when that failed it had the paper’s critic excluded from most of the theaters of New York.” (Fireproof Magazine. “Two Frightful Lessons in Vain,” Vol. 6, No. 4, April, 1905, p. 211.)

 

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National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at:  http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

National Fire Protection Association (John Hall, Jr.). U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 31 pages, December 2008.

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf

Public Opinion – A Comprehensive Summary of The Press Throughout the World on All Important Current Topics, Vol. XXXVI, January, 1904 – June, 1904. New York: Public Opinion. Digitized by Google. Accessed 9-22-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=atYaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Smith, Dennis. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America: 300 Years of Courage. NY:  The Dial Press, 1978.

Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and NY: Chambers, 1992, p. 97.

Walker, John. “The Iroquois Theater Fire: Entrances and Exits,” pp. 109-110 in Disasters. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., 1973.

Wikipedia. “Iroquois Theater Fire.” Accessed 12-28-2008 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theater_Fire

 

 

[1] Not used in that the figure of 700 deaths is not in keeping with any of the sources we have consulted, with many of them noted herein. Shown only to denote we are aware of source and figure.

[2] Note below that on page 139 Barlay notes 580 deaths.

[3] 24-28 West Randolph Street, north side, between State and Dearborn.

[4] “In fact, George Williams, Chicago’s building commissioner, and fire inspector Ed Laughlin looked over the theater in November 1903 and declared that it was ‘fireproof beyond all doubt’. They also noted its 30 exits, 27 of which were double doors. However, at the same time, William Clendenin, the editor of Fireproof magazine, also inspected the Iroquois and wrote a scathing editorial about its fire dangers, pointing out that there was a great deal of wood trim, no fire alarm and no sprinkler system over the stage.” (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

[5] Coroner’s Inquest testimony was given “that there were 1,606 people seated in the theater and probably 196 standing.”  (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

[6] “At two o’clock today a vast audience, mostly women and children, attended the matinee at the new Iroquois Theater in Chicago.  It is the holiday season and every seat was filled with a happy throng.”  (Reno Evening Gazette (NV), “Appalling Holocaust Today in Crowded Iroquois Theater,” December 30, 1903, p.1.)

[7] “The company, which was very large, escaped to the street in safety, nearly all of them…being compelled to flee into the snowy streets with no clothing but their stage costumes. A few members of the company sustained minor injuries, but none was seriously hurt.”  (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” 12-31-1903, p. 2.)

[8] Wikipedia:  “Versus the 1,724 seating capacity, nearly 2,000 patrons, mostly women and children on the holidays school break, were in attendance at this Wednesday matinee showing of the popular musical Mr. Bluebeard starring Eddie Foy and Annabelle Whitford and a performance troupe of 500.

[9] “At about 3:15…”  (Wikipedia, “Iroquois Theater Fire.”

[10] On the first day of the Coroner’s Inquest a Chicago Fire Department attorney testified, according to newspaper reports, that the fire started from an overheated floodlight twenty feet above the floor by which a linen curtain, which was nearer than usual to the light, was ignited.  (Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

[11]  Eddie Foy was the star – “When the actors became aware of the fire, they scattered backstage. Foy later returned and tried to calm the audience, telling them to stay seated.  An asbestos curtain was to be lowered that would confine the fire but when it wouldn’t come fully down, a panic began.  It later turned out to be made of paper so it wouldn’t have helped in any case.  Soon, all the lights inside the theater went out and there were stampedes near the open exits.  When the back door was opened, the shift of air caused a fireball to roar through the backstage area.”  .”  (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

[12] The “drop of the asbestos or fire curtain was obstructed by a light or light board fastened to the wall of the theater back of the proscenium arch.”  (News report from first day of Coroner’s Inquest, citing Fire Department testimony; see Iowa Recorder. “Fixing The Blame.” January 13, 1904.)

[13] “…27 of the theater’s 30 exits were locked…..The teenage ushers working the theater fled immediately, forgetting to open the locked emergency exit doors.  The few doors that were able to be forced open were four feet above the sidewalk, which slowed down the exiting process.”  (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

[14] “Most of the 591 people who died were seated in the balconies. There were no fire escapes or ladders to assist them and some took their chances and jumped. The bodies were piled six deep near the narrow balcony exits. In fact, some people were knocked down by the falling bodies and were eventually pulled out alive from under burned victims.”  (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

[15] “…stage manager Bill Carlton went out front to watch the show with the 2,000 patrons while the other stage hands left the theater and went out for a drink.  It was a spotlight operator who first noticed that one of the calcium lights seemed to have sparked a fire backstage.  The cluttered area was full of fire fuel—wooden stage props and oily rags.”  .”  (History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, Dec 30, 1903. “Fire Breaks Out in Chicago Theater.”)

[16] Including 30 school teachers in the Chicago school system.  (Iowa Recorder, “Thirty School Teachers Dead,” January 13, 1904.)  This is perhaps the largest loss of life of school teachers in a disaster in the history of the U.S.

[17] Not all were killed by the fire.  Perhaps the smallest percentage of deaths was by burning.  Many were suffocated and “scores were trampled to death.”  (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” December 31, 1903, p. 2)

[18] “When the firemen entered the building the dead were found stretched in a pile reaching from the head of the stairway at least eight feet from the door back to a point about five feet in the rear of the door.  This mass of dead bodies in the center of the door reached to within two feet of the passage way.  All of the corpses at this point were women and children.  The fight for life, which must have taken place at these two points is something that is simply beyond power to adequately describe….”  (Moberly Daily Monitor, “A Theater Horror,” Dec. 31, 1903, p. 2)