Cocoanut Grove Fire Essay

Cocoanut Grove Fire

Few incidents in America history have had an effect on the fire service and fire codes like the Cocoanut Grove Fire, the fire became so influential it affected the means of treating burn victims in a hospital setting pioneering the use of petroleum jelly and gauze as the preferred treatment for burn victims. On November 28, 1942 a fire that would consume 492 lives and injure over 166 patrons of the club. The Fire changed Boston’s fire codes and regulations instantly. The Cocoanut Grove Fire was a prime example of the potential devastation that will occur when fire codes and provisions are not in place or enforced as they should be.

On the night of the fire a party was to take place celebrating the win of Boston College over Holy Cross College at Fenway Park but the party was canceled when Boston College subsequently lost to Holy

Cross. The club was instead filled with the general public that night and was business as usual potentially sparing the lives of the collegiate athletes. The club was a single story business with a basement below which featured a bar, along with storage areas, a kitchen and a few freezers that would later spare a select few patrons. Above the basement was a ballroom to dance, multiple bars, and a dining area. The entrance to the club was a revolving door. In one report it was stated that at approximately 10:15pm an employee was told to change a light bulb in the bar of the basement at the request of management.
When the employee went to change the light bulb he lit a match to see where the light bulb needed to be changed, witness accounts state that they saw smoke billowing from the area that the employee was with the lit match, seconds later the night club had caught fire and the disaster was born.

With the Fire beginning in the basement it aided in the fire, quickly filling the basement with smoke because of the large amount of flammable material at the bar. With the fire in the basement it began to preheat the upper level of the club. The only known exit route to patrons was a tight stairwell leading to the upper level which would later become packed with bodies that were unable to escape. The Fire was spreading rapidly as well as a thick cloud of smoke which was putting people unconscious and taking more lives than burn victims. The exits to the club were unlit or covered by drapes, most of those who escaped were workers and those who followed an employee that knew where an exit or window was located. The revolving door in the front was instantly jam packed with bodies proving to be similar to a bear trap than an

exit.
At approximately 10:20pm the fire department received a pull from the nearest fire box and the Fire department was in route to the disaster. By 10:24pm the fire chief had it upgraded to a fourth alarm fire, and later at 11:02pm it became a fifth alarm fire. The fire was extinguished quickly with all the resources at hand and the search and rescue portion of the disaster had begun. The Fire chief executed a search and removal of every single body in the building. Hospitals became saturated with victims, way above what they were designed to accept.
Most of the Patients were sent to Massachusetts General Hospital or Boston Community Hospital. However a Doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital by the name of Oliver Cope began putting his new method for burn treatments in to place that night. His new method would require sterile gauze saturated in petroleum jelly to be wrapped on patients burns. This new method was simpler that the previous preferred method and it was exponentially less painful for the patients receiving the treatment. When you compared the survival rate of burn victims after the incident that went to Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Community it was noted that the survival rate was much higher at Massachusetts General. Also many of Boston Community’s patient succumbed to their burns in the later months. All in all the petroleum jelly and gauze became the universally preferred method of treatment to a burn victim after the incident.
Immediately the public in Boston was outraged