The Cocoanut Grove Fire Changed Every Nightclub in America
November 28, 1942: more than a thousand people in a club rated for 460, and 492 dead. The exit rules you see in every bar today came out of that night.
On the Saturday night after Thanksgiving in 1942, the Cocoanut Grove at 17 Piedmont Street in Bay Village was packed. The club was rated for 460 people. More than a thousand were inside when a fire started in the basement lounge at about 10:15 p.m.
It spread through paper palm trees and fabric on the ceiling in minutes. The main entrance was a revolving door, and it jammed as people pushed against it. Other doors opened inward or had been locked. 492 people died, the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history at the time. What started it has never been settled; the official report listed the origin as unknown.
Why it still matters on a night out
The rules that came out of the Cocoanut Grove are the ones you walk past every time you go out:
- Exit doors have to swing outward.
- Revolving doors need a regular door right next to them.
- Exit signs have to be lit and visible, and emergency exits can’t be bolted shut.
- Flammable decorations were banned.
It changed medicine too. Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston City Hospital treated most of the victims, and doctors there developed new ways to treat burns. Some survivors were among the first people treated with penicillin.
The site today
The club stood where the Revere Hotel is now, in Bay Village, a few minutes’ walk from the Theater District. A sidewalk plaque nearby remembers it, and a larger memorial is planned for Statler Park nearby.
Sources: Wikipedia: Cocoanut Grove fire.
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