Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire

CE 808

STRUCTURAL FIRE ENGINEERING

Assignment # 1

Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire

By

Kyung Hoon Sun

Nikhil Raut

Summary

The Cocoanut Grove, a nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts burned on November 28, 1942, in what remains the deadliest nightclub fire in United States history, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. The fire only lasted for approximately 15 minutes from ignition to extinguishment. The cause of the fire was attributed to a lighted match which then lit up one of the decorative coconut tree in the club. The club had low ceilings and was full of combustible and flammable materials such as, satin, cloth, paper bamboo, imitation leather etc., and these materials could be found everywhere within the structure. Thus the fire spread quickly and also released a lot of harmful gases. The exit signs were also obscured by the decorations and the exits were ill designed. The doors were either revolving doors or opened inwards. Thus the doors could not be opened when all the occupants rushed towards it. Also the club was occupied by 1000 people as against its designed number of 600. The incident lead to many changes in the Building and Life Safety Codes. Some which were the limit on the number of occupants in a structure, the type of materials to be used for the interiors and the standards they have to meet and minimum number of openings required based on the number of occupants.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 4

1.1 General 4

2. Cocoanut Grove Fire 4

2.1 General 4

2.2 The Fire 4

3. Detailed Review of the Incident 5

3.1 Design/layout features of the building 5

3.2 Cause and origin of the fire 5

3.3 Growth and consequences of the fire 6

3.4 Fire spread mechanisms 6

3.5 Deficiencies in the building / structure fire protection features 7

3.6 The fire service response 7

3.7 Effect on the structure and reinstatement 7

4. Lessons Learnt 8

5. Conclusions 8

6. Acknowledgements 8

7. References 8

List of Figures

Figure 1 Cocoanut Grove nightclub. 9

Figure 2 Cocoanut Grove – Inside View. 9

Figure 3 Floor Plan of Coconut Grove. 10

Figure 4 Cocoanut Grove – Post Fire. 11

Figure 5 Location of Cocoanut Grove. 11

Figure 6 Cocoanut Grove Memorial Plaque. 12

1.  Introduction

1.1  General

How mankind has dealt with fire in the past has direct impact on how he deals with it now and in the future. The history of fire protection is, at best, described as “reactionary”. When a crises occurs we make changes. Over the past five centuries many changes have occurred in the field of fire protection, most of them directly related to major fires that have occurred. In this report we shall look at one of these fires that has shaped modern fire protection.

2.  Cocoanut Grove Fire

2.1  General

The Cocoanut Grove was a nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 28, 1942, the fashionable nightclub burned in what remains the deadliest nightclub fire in United States history, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more. Prior to 9/11 it was also the second-worst single-building fire in American history; only the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago in 1903 killed more (602). The tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced World War II news headlines. The fire led to a reform of fire codes and safety standards across the country and prompted a seminal study of grief. The club's owner, Barney Welansky, who had boasted of his ties to the Mafia and to Boston mayor Maurice J. Tobin, was eventually found guilty of manslaughter

2.2  The Fire

The club, a former speakeasy located at 17 Piedmont Street in what is now Boston's Bay Village neighborhood, was filled with approximately 1,000 occupants that evening, about more than 50% its official capacity of 600. The club had recently been expanded with the addition of a lounge, which opened onto an adjacent street. Decorated in a Casablanca tropical style, the restaurant, bars, and lounges inside were decorated with romantic but flammable paper palm trees, cloth draperies covering the ceiling, flammable furniture, and other flimsy decorations, some of which obscured exit signs.

Official reports state the fire started at about 10:15 p.m. in the dark, intimate Melody Lounge downstairs. A young pianist and singer, Goody Goodelle, was performing on a revolving stage, surrounded by artificial palm trees. It was believed that a young man, possibly a soldier, had removed a light bulb in order to give him privacy while kissing his date. Stanley Tomaszewski, a 16-year-old busboy, was instructed to put the light back on by retightening the bulb. As he attempted to tighten the light bulb back into its socket, the bulb fell out in his hand. In the dimly-lit lounge, Tomaszewski, unable to see the socket, lit a match for a moment to illuminate the area, found the socket, blew out the match, and replaced the bulb. Almost immediately, patrons saw something ignite in the canopy of artificial palm fronds draped above the tables. Despite waiters' efforts to douse the fire by throwing water on it, it quickly spread along the fronds of the palm tree, igniting nearby decorations on the walls and ceiling. Flames raced up the stairway to the main level, feeding on oxygen and burning the hair of patrons who were stumbling up the stairs. A fireball burst across the central dance floor just as the orchestra was beginning its evening show. Flames raced through the adjacent Caricature Bar, then down a corridor to the New Lounge. Within five minutes, flames had spread to the main clubroom and the entire nightclub was ablaze.

As is common in panic situations, many patrons attempted to exit through the main entrance, the same way they had come in. However, the building's main entrance was a single revolving door, immediately rendered useless as the panicked crowd scrambled for safety. Bodies piled up behind both sides of the revolving door, jamming it to the extent that firefighters had to dismantle it in order to get inside. Other avenues of escape were similarly useless: side doors had been welded shut to prevent people from leaving without settling their bills. A plate glass window, which could have been smashed for escape, was instead boarded up and unusable as an emergency exit. Other unlocked doors opened inwards, rendering them useless against the crush of people trying to escape. Bartender Daniel Weiss and entertainer Goody Goodelle survived the Melody Lounge. By dowsing a cloth napkin with a pitcher of water, Weiss was able to escape by crawling through the kitchen and other subfloor areas. Goodelle and several other employees were able to escape by crawling through a barred window in the kitchen. Five survived by taking refuge in a walk-in refrigerator. Fire officials later testified that, had the doors swung outwards, at least 300 lives could have been spared. Many young soldiers perished in the disaster, as well as a married couple whose wedding had taken place earlier that day.

3.  Detailed Review of the Incident

In order to understand the actual cause of the fire and how it spread leading to such a massacre this section has been divided in separate sections.

3.1  Design/layout features of the building

The Cocoanut Grove nightclub, located now in Bay Village, was the largest and most popular nightclub of its type in the city of Boston at the time. The club, shown in Fig. 1, could take 600 hundred people even for a building that was only a one and a half story in height. Since the size of the club was considered small for its capacity of people, the owner remodeled the basement for better business. The building was built as a garage that had been transformed over time into nightclub. The building expanded its size from its original dimension and became a spacious structure that was divided by plywood covered concrete walls. Fig. 2 shows the inside of the club. The building was constructed with brick and stucco which were considered to be fireproof during that time period. The club contained one revolving door and 8 doors that led to outside. Basement was equipped with Melody Lounge, kitchen, and storage and main floor had dance floor, new broadway lounge, and caricature bar. The floor plan is shown in Fig 3.

3.2  Cause and origin of the fire

The place where the fire started is the Melody Lounge located in the basement of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Melody Lounge had opened just 8 days before the disaster occurred. Since the Melody Lounge was newly opened, it was required to pass the inspection. The inspection was performed by Lieutenant Linney, a member of the Boston fire department, and the club and the Melody Lounge were found to be satisfactory and in ‘Good’ condition. Lieutenant performed a flame test on the decorations, it did not burn. According to the inspection note, the club had sufficient number of exits and fire extinguishers. However, the fact is that the nightclub had low ceilings, full of combustible and flammable materials and these materials could be found everywhere within the structure. This is seen in Fig. 2. The Melody Lounge opened for business after the inspection of the fire department, but the area did not have a certificate of operation issued by the city of Boston’s building inspection division, which was illegal.

In the Melody Lounge, there was a piano player playing music and it was packed with people. Around 10 pm, the band was waiting to perform the second show of the night upstairs. In the Melody Lounge, a young couple wanted their privacy and removed a 7.5 watt light bulb from its socket on the palm tree fronds being used as decorations. The darkened area yielded itself to more privacy and intimacy for the couple. According to the witness’s testimony, a sixteen years old busboy called Stanley Tomaszewski who was working illegally at the club was told to replace the missing light bulb by bartender. The boy stepped on the chair to reach the socket, but it was to dark to see the socket for him. Then, he lit a match to see the light socket and replace the light bulb. Then the match burned his fingers and dropped the match and it landed on the palm tree frond. This testimony was never actually been proven but the fact was that a moment later, flames were seen flickering through the palm tree frond.

In 1997, the case was reopened. New information and improved understanding of fire dynamics led to the determination that the ‘flash fire’ was caused by extremely flammable methyl chloride leaking from a faulty refrigerator in a service area near the Melody Lounge.

3.3  Growth and consequences of the fire

When the people detected the flames on the palm tree, some employees came to smother the flickering flames with bar rag. Other workers tried to assist him by using liquid filled glasses and pitchers. Another employee brought over an extinguisher to put the flames out but the fire continued to glow quickly. At that time, most of guests were rather amused by watching the workers trying to kill the fire than escaping. More people came near the palm tree to see what was going on. Those who tried to put the fire out pulled the palm tree down and now the flames were curling across the cloth lined ceiling area dreadfully. The flames then continued to the race across the ceiling area raining the sparks down upon the people underneath. The growing fire now turned people from excitement to terror.

The crowd who were watching the fire rushed up to the first floor using stairs and some people were trapped in the mind lost crowd. The Melody Lounge’s light went out few seconds later and the area was completely dark with full of deadly smoke. Most of people evacuated through the stairs that they came down; some found a kitchen door and escaped. Some people tried to get out through the window which was just a decorative painting on the brick wall. Carbon monoxide and other gases released by the flammable decorative materials overwhelmed many people quickly. The door at the end of the corridor was locked and the rush of bodied into this area was so enormous that they jammed into this space and crushed to death. The reason why the door was locked was that the management of the Cocoanut Grove had a policy that says, ‘No one was to enter of leave Boston’s finest night spot without paying’. Other people tried to escape through the main entrance which was revolving door. Employee blocked the entrance and forced the crowd to pay before going outside. Numerous people rushed to get out through the revolving door resulted in jamming the door shut. The swinging door next to the main entrance was also locked. There were two other doors leading to the street but both opened inward. The fire spread to the main floor and most of people who were unaware of the fire panicked. People tried to escape through the doors but all of them were locked or opened inwardly.

3.4  Fire spread mechanisms

The fire spread mechanism in the Cocoanut grove was the interior decoration. The night club was decorated to resemble a tropical paradise which involved artificial palm trees, other tropical plants and a cloth ceiling that gave the ambiance of a tropical paradise at night. However, these materials were consisted of satin, cloth, paper, rattan, and bamboo and they were considered to be highly combustible. The wall was covered with imitation leather which caused many deaths by deadly smoke. So, when fire started, there were full of materials that could catch fire easily and it was not easy to put out. The minute by minute progress of the event is given below: