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| Spokane Fire - Media Release |
Thursday September 2 - 7:38 PM |
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| Information |
| Date : |
Address : |
Officer : |
| 12/30/2005 |
44 West Riverside |
Brian Schaeffer, Assistant Chief |
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| Narrative : |
| Please take time today to remember the 102nd anniversary of the single greatest loss of life in a structure fire in this country's history.
The fire took place in Chicago, less than a month after the opening of the new (supposedly fireproof) Iroquois Theater at 24-28 W. Randolph. It was standing room only for a holiday matinee of the popular musical "Mr. Blue Beard, Jr." Of the 1,900 people in the audience, mostly women and children, at least 600 perished.
Due to a long history of theater fires in the U.S. and Europe, by 1903 fire precautions were well developed, but not followed by the Iroquois Theater management. The primary danger came from the stage scenery consisting of many canvas backdrops painted with highly flammable oil paints and suspended in midair close to a large number of hot lights. In a number of fatal fires, including the Iroquois the scenery caught fire, then quickly reached almost explosive proportions.
The fire started at 3:15 p.m. as a hot light started flames crackling up a velvet curtain. The theater had hired on-duty firefighters but they were equipped only with two tubes of patent powder called Kilfyres. Sprinkling these on the fire proved totally ineffective. The theater lacked fire hoses, extinguishers or any other means of fighting fires above the fireman's head.
As the fire started the orchestra played on, and the leading actor urged people to remain seated. Although this no doubt prevented some deaths from panic, those who heeded his advice perished in the explosive smoke and flames. A number of bodies were found still seated. The theater management had added iron gates over many of the exit doors. Some of the gates were locked, others were unlocked but opening them required operation of a small lever of a type unfamiliar to most theater patrons. Other doors opened inwards. The theater had had no fire drills so ushers and theater personnel neither opened the doors, nor directed people to safe exits. Many people were trapped behind unopened doors. The time it took to open other doors added to the fatal panic as it forced almost everyone to use the main exits.
Even though it was outside the fire area, trampled bodies were piled ten high in the stairwell area where exits from the balcony met the exit from the main floor. More fatalities occurred when fire broke out underneath an alley fire escape. People above the fire jumped. The first to jump died as they hit the hard pavement. Later jumpers landed on the bodies and survived. The same scenario happened as patrons jumped from the balcony to the main floor of the theater. All injuries occurred within 15 minutes of the start of the fire, which was put out by the fire department within half an hour.
The Iroquois fire prompted new safety standards nationwide—including Spokane. Under the new standards, exits had to be clearly marked; be operable from the inside at all times; and open outwards. It is SFD’s hope that the memory of the Iroquois Theatre will encourage the media and citizens to become more vigilant about fire safety. Otherwise, complacency and a lack of accountability might lead history to repeat itself.
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Spokane Fire Department  44 West Riverside Ave Spokane WA, 99201 (509) 625-7002 |
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©1997 - 2002, Spokane Fire Department - City of Spokane, Washington
All rights reserved. |
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