John C. Esposito

This is a very readable book about a disastrous fire at a nightclub in Boston in 1942. The book describes the fire in some detail, but the heart of the book is about the failures in codes and inspections that allowed it to consume so many lives. The book walks the tightrope between giving detail about the background and telling the gripping story of the actual fire very well, so that it kept my interest from beginning to end. Just when the reader gets feeling smug about how this fire changed show more the culture and we're all safer now, the closing chapter describes the Station fire, and it becomes clear we have not come nearly so far as we would like to think. show less

On November 28th, 1942, a popular nightclub and restaurant in Boston was packed with around a thousand people. By law, there should have been half that. The many exits should have been unlocked and usable, but the majority were locked or blocked to keep guests from skipping out on their checks. The owner had even built a coat check room across one exit. The decor was supposed to be flame-retardant, but the fire started in one of the paper-mache palm trees and withing seconds spread to the show more thousands of feet of fabric draped across the ceilings. Within ninety seconds the fire had engulfed the basement lounge and spread to the main floor dining room, killing more than 50 servicemen and cowboy star Buck Jones.
The Cocoanut Grove Disaster is still the largest nightclub fire in American history, killing just under 500 people. It tested new theories in medicine and led to innovative treatment of surviving burn victims, including pinprick skin grafts.
This book includes the many trials of the owner and his employees, in which the extensive level of corruption among the Boston licensing boards, the fire department and even the mayor were exposed, yet really only the owner was punished. show less

Very absorbing analysis of one of American history's worst fire disasters, the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, which killed approximately 490 people in November, 1942. The book is very well-organized, especially in describing how the fire spread, and precisely what the problems were in crowd control that led to the disaster. The author explains some of the innovations that came out of the disaster, such as the treatment for burns and the study of PTSD. The illustrations are well-chosen, with show more the map of the nightclub being the most interesting, and the most helpful. There's even a discussion of how Boston politics affected the disaster and the people involved. Definitely recommended. show less

The Cocoanut Grove was considered THE place to go for nightlife in Boston. But on Saturday evening, November 28, 1942, fire flashed through the Grove. It was the deadliest fire in Boston history, killing nearly 500 people.

This book shows us the factors which made the Cocoanut Grove a disaster waiting to happen, including: a labyrithine floorplan, abundant flammable materials (even fabric hanging from the ceilings), crowding far beyond capacity, and inadequate/locked/blocked fire exits -- show more plus, the main entrance was a revolving door. And, in the background, there was plenty of the political corruption for which Boston was famous in the mid-20th century.

A diagram of the nightclub helps the reader to understand just what a fire trap the Cocoanut Grove was. I would suggest that readers look for this diagram as they begin to read the book, to better visualized the club's layout; it is at the center of the book, with the photographs. The photographs themselves are haunting; after some shots of people involved in the case, we begin to catch glimpses of the deadly pandemonium which broke out on that long-ago Saturday night.

I was somewhat disappointed in this book; there is no bibliography, and notes are spotty. (I was almost halfway through the book before I saw any actual footnotes.) There were some mentions of sources of information in the Acknowledgments. On the pages of the book which recount the events of the fire itself, there are boxes with brief quotations from the Boston Fire Dept. Report. I found that particular format somewhat annoying; I assume they are intended to add "official" confirmation to the general account of how the fire progressed, but they represent only the most basic facts compared to Esposito's more detailed narrative. I am left to assume that the fuller details were discovered somewhere in the Fire Dept.'s archives to which Esposito refers in the acknowledgment, but there is rarely an indication as to specific source documents.

The writing is fairly straightforward. The author provides background on the nightclub’s history, introduces us to some of the people who were at the Grove that night, and offers a sometimes gripping account of the fire, rescue/recovery efforts, and the legal and political wrangling that followed it all. There is a chapter about the human panic response in crowds, which was such a factor in the tragedy. He also shows us the proverbial “silver lining” of it all – improvements to fire codes and burn treatments which grew out of the tragedy.

Esposito also demonstrates how poorly the lessons from the Grove fire were taken to heart. He closes his book with an account of the 2003 Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island – a fire which has unsettling similarities to the Cocoanut Grove conflagration. He aso adds tips for readers to assess the fire safety of public buildings in which they may find themselves.

For those wanting a basic narrative of the Cocoanut Grove fire and its aftermath, this book is more than adequate. If you're interested in source documentation, however, you will probably find this book lacking. show less