Chronology of a Local Disaster:

The Coconut Grove Fire, 1942
On Saturday, November 28, 1942, at 10:11 PM, a fire started in the basement lounge of the Coconut Grove nightclub in the Bay Village neighborhood of Boston. Approximately 1,000 occupants were crowded into the nightclub that night, 400 over the club’s legal occupancy limit. A lit match used by a busboy to help him change a light bulb is thought to be the cause of this tragic fire, which soon engulfed the entire basement level, shooting rapidly into the upper floors.

Approximately half of the individuals on the premises that evening 492 patrons were killed in the fire. The two revolving doors at the main entrance had bodies stacked four and five deep authorities estimated that possibly 300 of these individuals could have escaped had the doors swung outward. Another exit’s panic bar had been welded shut, and bodies were found piled up behind this exit as well. Still another exit was hidden by drapes. Autopsies indicated that, in addition to the fire itself, the leak of a refrigerant, methyl chloride, may have contributed to the high death toll.

By 10:45 PM, less than half an hour after firefighters arrived, the fire was contained and the main fire was extinguished. But the medical response to this disaster was far from over. The dead and dying lay everywhere. Police and firefighters commandeered police cars, taxicabs, and newspaper trucks to serve as ambulances.

The first casualties arrived at Boston City Hospital at 10:31 PM. For a solid hour, a casualty arrived at BCH every eleven seconds until the hospital administrator told the police to stop bringing casualties there. A total of 429 individuals were brought to Boston City that night 300 of these were dead on arrival (DOA), and 129 were admitted for care. Treatment of survivors was standardized every patient received morphine, IV fluids, and boric acid in petroleum jelly. Penicillin, a new and rare medicine at that time, was administered until supplies ran out.

Patients were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital as well, where an entire ward was reserved for Coconut Grove fire victims. MGH staff initiated a newly developed mobilization plan that had been developed to treat burn victims of the war. A total of 114 victims, 75 of whom were DOA or died shortly after admission,
were admitted.