Today in History: The Deadliest Single-Building Fire In US History

On this day (December 30) in 1903, the Iroquois Theater Fire killed at least 602 people in Chicago. It remains the deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history. The Iroquois theater had opened less than two months before and had been advertised as “absolutely fireproof” despite glaring inadequacies such as too few exits and a lack of a sprinkler system. When these inadequacies were brought to the attention of the fire warden by a Chicago Fire Department captain the warden told him that the syndicate owning the building would fire him if he told them how dangerous the building was.

That proved to be most unfortunate when during a sold out performance (seating capacity was 1602 plus standing room for another 500-600 people) a short circuit caused an arc light to spark setting a muslin curtain on fire. The flames quickly spread to canvas scenery flats. An attempt to lower an asbestos fire curtain failed (but the curtain was not actually fire proof and wouldn’t have helped anyway) and the actors fled off the stage and out the rear exit. Opening the rear exit let winter wind in which spread the flames faster. The few existing fire doors were locked and most were never successfully opened. The crowd was mostly women and children. Many were trampled in the rush for the exit. Corpses were piled ten high around the doors and windows as people succumbed to the smoke and others tried (often unsuccessfully) to crawl over them and escape.

In the aftermath of the fire, many people were charged with crimes including Chicago’s mayor, Carter Harrison Jr., but the delaying tactics of the theater owners’ lawyers succeeded in getting almost all charges dropped three years later. The only successful prosecution related to the fire was a tavern owner convicted of grave robbing (presumably for looting the dead after the fire).