Visit the Site of the Cocoanut Grove Disaster in Boston, Massachusetts

A visit to the memorial plaque of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire on 17 Piedmont Street in Boston, Massachusetts is a somber recall of human tragedy where hundreds died within minutes. The site is a three block walk on Arlington Street from the Arlington subway stop, walking in the same direction as the street traffic, Piedmont is on the left.

The Tragic Incident

The nightclub was a popular dining, dancing, and drinking spot in November, 1942 featuring live band music, with a maximum capacity of 460 people. The clientele usually included a mix of greater Boston residents out for an evening, local sports team members and followers, and lots of soldiers and sailors on leave in war-time Boston. The night of November 28, 1942 there were an estimated 1,000 people in the building, 492 of whom would die as a result of the fire. This incident still ranks as the deadliest nightclub fire in U. S. history and the second deadliest single building fire in U. S. history, only Chicago's Iroquois Theater in 1903 where 602 perished is a greater tragedy.

The Nightclub

The club was decorated in a Caribbean theme with wall decorations of flimsy paper and a cloth covered ceiling, all highly flammable. There was a true occurrence that has emerged into legend as the cause of the fire, verified by survivors; however, the Boston Fire Commissioner report after the blaze could not find this to be the sole cause.

Legend has it that a soldier wanting more privacy for action with his date loosened a light bulb to increase the darkness and a 16 year old busboy was later told to re-light the fixture. The busboy seemed to mistakenly turn the bulb looser and dropped it, apparently unbroken. He could not locate the socket in the darkness so lit a match, replaced the bulb, dropped the match to the floor, stepped on it and left the area. Within less than a minute, witnesses saw flames in that area shoot up the flimsy decorations and the fateful fire was underway.

The Investigation

The cause of the Cocoanut Grove tragic inferno has never been solved. The owner was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and served several years in prison. The high death toll may have been from toxic flammable gases released from the burning decorations, gas leak from a faulty refrigerator, gross overcrowding in violation of code, natural chimney effect from stairwells and ventilation ducts, panic and inadequate exits. Maybe it was all of these factors, or maybe none of these factors. We probably will never know the cause of the greatest nightclub fire in U. S. history.

William Arthur Reilly, Fire Commissioner, City of Boston, Report Concerning the Cocoanut Grove Fire, 1942