Fire In The Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and Its Aftermath

Illustrated softcovers. x+ 254 pp. with index. Illustrations. near fine, slight evidence of use at the outer tips. On Saturday night, November 28, 1942, the Boston Fire Department responded to a small car fine in the city's theater and nightclub district. After extinguishing it, one fireman, looking down the street remarked to the Chief, "You've got another one going up over there." The chief knew immediately where it was---the Coconut Grove night club and connected buildings, one of Boston's most popular night spots. Later the BFD would learn that the fire had actually started nearly a city block away. Soon the entire connected complex had gone up and nearly 500 people who had been inside were either dead or doomed. During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the Cocoanut Grove had been jammed with twice the number of people allowed, that fire regulations had been cavalierly discarded, the methyl chloride (rather than non-flammable Freon) leaking from the air conditioning united had accelerated the blaze, that inside palm-tree decorations were flammable, and that some exit doors were locked. The club's owner Barnet Walansky, a man with underworld connections, was blamed for the tragedy (he served four years in prison).…