iroquois theater fire facts

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At least 602 people were killed; many were children. The Iroquois Theatrewas at 24–28 West Randolph Street, between State Street and Dearborn Street, in Chicago. The Hub Roller Rink & Axle Roller Rinks of Illinois. Anxious relatives sifted through the remains, searching for loved ones. Most notably, the theater had no fire alarm or sprinklers and the emergency smoke vents above the stage were nailed shut. Foy, who was preparing to go on stage at the time, ran out and attempted to calm the crowd, first making sure that his young son was in the care of a stagehand. I have tried in vain to obtain a cab or a carriage and I can get none. The investigation showed that the fire was sparked by an arc light which ignited scenery curtains. Ruined stage of the Iroquois Theater after the fire, looking down from the balcony. The second level, the dress circle or first balcony, had more than 400 seats. The passageway behind the theater is still referred to as "Death Alley" today, after nearly 150 victims were found here. Digital Research Library of Illinois History, Saturday, December 30, 2017 at 2:53:00 AM CST. To make matters worse, the management also established a policy to keep non-paying customers from slipping into the theater during a performance -- they quietly bolted nine pair of iron panels over the rear doors and installed padlocked, accordion-style gates at the top of the interior second and third-floor stairway landings. It also analyzes changes in the wake of the fire, including stricter enforcement of theater safety regulations and changes in theater construction and operations. Those who escaped had literally ripped the metal bars from the front of the balcony and had jumped onto the crowds below. The auditorium began to fill with heat and smoke and screams echoed off the walls and ceilings. Fifteen women and children did this and were passed by the head cook down to the other men on the ladder below him. *We promise we will never SPAM you with unwanted emails. In a video available on CSPAN.org, Nat Brandt leads a discussion at the Chicago Public Library about his book, Chicago Death Trap: Book Discussion on Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903. Fireproofing would have played a significant role in preventing the severity of this fire.

The alley to the north of the theater, known as Couch Place, was icy, narrow, and full of smoke. It discusses the expert advice ignored by the theater's architect and owners and the preventable actions that led to the fire. The main floor and balcony were packed and dozens more were given "standing-room-only" tickets and they lined the rear and walls of the theater. The syndicate that bankrolled its construction chose the location specifically to attract women on day trips from out of town who, it was thought, would be more comfortable attending a theater near the safe, police-patrolled Loop shopping district. These links take you to the IFSI catalog. On the way to the scene, at approximately 3:33 pm, a member of Engine 13 activated an alarm box to call additional units. In 1926, the Oriental Theatre was built on the site. Nevertheless, the building was repaired and re-opened briefly in 1904 as Hyde and Behmann's Music Hall and then in 1905 as the Colonial Theater. Perhaps, or perhaps the strange sensations experienced here are "ghosts of the past" of another kind. The bodies were laid side  by side for fifty feet along the sidewalk and were piled two to three feet deep.

The History of Brach’s Confections. It took only 10 minutes to put out the blaze, as the intense heat inside had already eaten up anything that would still burn. The bodies were in such an 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.
It was so quiet that the first firefighters to arrive thought it was a false alarm. After the Iroquois Theatre Fire, the Iroquois Theatre was renamed and reopened as the Colonial Theatre in 1904.

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. When I was about half way down I heard the roar of the crowd as it came after me, and I hurried with all the speed I had.
The restored theater is now part of the Civic Tower Building and is next door to the restored Delaware Building. But this has not stopped the tales of the old Iroquois Theater from being told, especially in light of more recent -- and more ghostly events. “This mass of dead bodies in the center of the door reached to within two feet of the top of the passageway. (1975-1981). Initial efforts focused on the people trapped on the fire escapes. Information about the Iroquois Theatre Fire is on page 11. 10-Vol. The fire began to spread to the rest of the staging area, sending flames out from the half-lowered curtains. He later wrote, “It struck me as I looked out over the crowd during the first act that I had never before seen so many women and children in the audience. After the fire, it was alleged that fire inspectors had been bribed with free tickets to overlook code violations. Families of the dead filed nearly 275 civil lawsuits against the theater but no money was ever collected. They blamed the inspectors, who had overlooked the problems in exchange for free theater passes. All theater exits had to be clearly marked and the doors configured so that, even if they could not be pulled open from the outside, they could be pushed open from the inside. A chilling remembrance of a terrifying event that will never be completely forgotten. It was after 3 pm and the audience was watching a comedy called Mr. Bluebeard when one of the spotlights began to burn. The Oriental operated at what is now 24 West Randolph Street until the middle part of 1981, when it fell into disrepair and was closed down.

"Unattractive" safety doors were hidden from sight and gates were locked across the entrance to the balcony during the show so that those in the "cheap seats" wouldn't sneak into the main theater. IFSI Library materials can be delivered to a patron’s Illinois local library through ILL service. Digitized copy of a 1904 publication documenting the Iroquois Theatre Fire from the Digitized Books from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Open Content Alliance. If a fire would break out backstage, there was no way to alert anyone up front that there was a fire. The Facts About Four Plus One (4+1) Mid Century, M... Future City, Illinois, the Town that Washed Away. And those were not even the worst problems. Photo ID is required to establish a lending account. The Architect Marshall stated, “I’ll never allow another theatre to be built with a stick of wood in it.”[26] Many of the ordinances still exist or set the precedence for many of today’s fire-prevention regulations. The main floor, known as the orchestra or parquet, had approximately 700 seats on the same level as the foyer and Grand Stair Hall. Others – and oh! In the Iroquois Theatre Fire, the standing-room areas were so crowded that some patrons sat in the aisles, blocking the exits. I  left my seat in the balcony, went downstairs to the first balcony and from there started to pass out through the very door in which so many people were killed a few minutes later. Unfortunately, in America, we have had our fair share of disasters due to fire. At least 602 people were killed; many were children. The building did not have enough hoses available if a fire were to break out. I struggled to my feet, but the weight of the crowd was such that I could not turn back, and I was carried out through the door. Taken by a Chicago Daily News Photographer January 4, 1904. Despite being billed as “Absolutely Fireproof” in advertisements and playbills, numerous deficiencies in fire readiness were apparent: On December 30, 1903, a Wednesday, the Iroquois presented a matinee performance of the popular Drury Lane musical Mr. Blue Beard, which had been playing at the Iroquois since opening night. The aisles had become impassable and as the lights went out, the crowd milled about in blind terror. It includes many pictures. In a rush to get the theater open quickly, however, the theater management did not finish many basic fire precautions. Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theater Fire of 1903, Fire Disasters:The Truth Behind the Tragedies, Brett Lacey; Paul Valentine; John Joerschke (Editor), Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes the Shaped a City, Iroquois Theatre Fire (Chicago, Ill., 1903) Collection, Tinder Box: The Iroqouis Theatre Disaster 1903, https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=416856, Illinois Periodicals Online--A Matinee to Remember, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Digital Commons: The Iroquois Theatre Fire: Chicago's Other Great Fire, Book Discussion on Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903. When the Iroquois Theater opened in Chicago on November 23, 1903, advertisers boasted that the building was completely fire-proof. The December 30 performance drew a much larger sellout audience. When the captain reported the matter to his commanding officer, he was again told that nothing could be done, as the theater already had a fire warden. A third door was opened either by brute force or by a blast of air, but most of the other doors could not be opened. Of the 300 or so actors, dancers, and stagehands, only five people died: the aerialist (Nellie Reed), an actor in a bit part, an usher, and two female attendants. Several plunged to their deaths as they tried to escape across the ladder but many times that number jumped from the ledge or were pushed by the milling crowd that pressed through the doors behind them. Even then, most of these met their deaths at a lower level. There was a pile of bleeding bodies ten feet high, with blackened faces and remnants of charred clothing clinging to them. Whether he was an employee of the theater or not, I don’t know, but he had evidently determined that no one should leave the theater, and in so doing started a panic. The History of the Relic House in Chicago. However, the common stairway ignored Chicago fire ordinances that required separate stairways and exits for each balcony. This article, published in the July/August 1995 NFPA Journal, includes the detailed first-person account of Eddie Foy. The Brennan Family of Chicago, Illinois. One father chose to take his little girl home instead of letting her be taken to the morgue: “…a man, haggard and worn, entered a Cottage Grove Avenue car, carrying in his arms the body of a golden-haired girl. The theater, which had only been open one … Instead of enjoying one of the theater’s last performances of that year, many attendees ended up losing their lives.

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