1984 — July 4, Arson, Elliott Chambers Rooming Home Fire, Beverly, MA — 15

— 15  Boston Globe (Ortega). “1984 Beverly fire etched into memory of witnesses.” 7-4-2014.

— 15  Duwe, Grant.  Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 28.

— 15  Elliottchambersfire.org.  Remembering the Elliott Chambers Fire.

— 15  NFPA. Lodging/Rooming Houses. “Boarding House, Beverly, MA, 7-4-84, 15 fatalities.”

— 15  Quinn, Colleen E. and John J. Burke. Elliott Chambers Fire Memorial Foundation, Inc.

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

 

Narrative Information

 

Boston Globe retrospective: “….Officials would later say that the 35-room building was “built to burn.” The blaze spurred state legislation requiring sprinklers in boarding and lodging houses. ‘It was a very tragic fire in the annals of the history of the Commonwealth,’ said State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan, who, at the time, was director of the state fire academy. ‘It dictated discussion of what could be done to prevent similar tragedies.’….

 

“In 1989, James Carver, a taxi driver and part-time pizza maker from Danvers, was convicted of setting the fire. Today, he is serving back-to-back life sentences for arson and second-
degree murder. Authorities say Carver acted in a fit of jealousy after he learned a tenant was dating a former girlfriend of his. A jury found that he took a match to a stack of gasoline-soaked newspapers in the front doorway of the rooming house, the only exit available to the building’s 33 residents. Carver continued to insist he was innocent and appealed the decision as recently as 2009. His lawyer pointed to another resident of the rooming house, saying that man had a propensity for starting fires…. Steve O’Connell, a spokesman for Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said the prosecutor’s office remains convinced Carver was responsible for the fire….

 

“Those who lived at Elliott Chambers tended to be poor men in difficult circumstances, according to witnesses and news reports at the time. There were drug addicts, drifters, and former mental hospital patients, although children and women also lived there. A boy and a woman, found in the manager’s room, were among the victims.

 

“Massachusetts legislators quickly passed a law that allowed municipalities to choose to require sprinklers in boarding and lodging houses. More than 130 cities and towns now mandate sprinklers in boarding houses, said Coan, the fire marshal. Deaths in rooming house fire have declined dramatically since the law went into effect, from nine in 1985 to an average of fewer than one a year since the mid-1990s, according to data from the state’s Department of Fire Services.

 

“Coan helped craft similar legislation, currently under review on Beacon Hill, that would expand residential use of sprinklers. He said 23 people in one- and two-family homes in Massachusetts died in fires last year, and such deaths might be prevented if sprinklers and other fire-control technology were present.

 

“The Elliott Chambers fire — along with the Cocoanut Grove nightclub blaze in 1942 that killed 492 people in Boston — continues to serve as a reference point for public safety discussions in Massachusetts, he said….” (Boston Globe (Oliver Ortega). “1984 Beverly fire etched into memory of witnesses.” 7-4-2014.)

 

Elliottchambersfire.org: “In the early morning of July 4, 1984, a fire swept through a three-story rooming house above Davis Drug pharmacy located at 434 Rantoul Street in Beverly, Massachusetts. The pre-dawn blaze took the lives of 15 people, which is considered the highest death toll for arson in Massachusetts.  13 of the 36 residents at the Elliott Chambers rooming house died of burns or smoke inhalation when the fast-moving fire erupted. A 14th victim was killed when he jumped from a third-floor room trying to escape the flames. The 15th victim died a few weeks later at a hospital.” (Elliottchambersfire.org.  Remembering the Elliott Chambers Fire.)

Sources

 

Boston Globe (Oliver Ortega). “1984 Beverly fire etched into memory of witnesses.” 7-4-2014. Accessed 2-13-2017 at: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/07/03/three-decades-later-beverly-rooming-house-fire-that-killed-leaves-legacy-loss-and-reform/PljEbDRo6WmiAs5L84MRNP/story.html

 

Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007.

 

Elliottchambersfire.org. Remembering the Elliott Chambers Fire. Accessed 12-3-2010 at:  http://www.elliottchambersfire.org/index.html

 

National Fire Protection Association. Lodging/Rooming Houses. “Boarding House, Beverly, MA, 7-4-84, 15 fatalities.” Accessed 2-13-2017 at: http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/resources/fire-investigations/residential/lodging-or-rooming-houses

 

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

 

Quinn, Colleen E. and John J. Burke. Elliott Chambers Fire Memorial Foundation, Inc. “Remembering the Elliott Chambers Fire.” Accessed 2-28-2013 at: http://elliottchambersfire.org/