The Iroquois Theater Fire

Paper Summary:

The paper outlines the causes of the Iroquis Theater Fire, what regulations were violated and what corrective actions could have been taken to prevent the fire from having taken place. The paper contends that poor planning, derelict management and shoddy inspection work contributed to the tragedy.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, the incident began at around 3:15 pm on December 30th. Inside Chicago's Iroquois theater roughly 1900 souls were crammed together to watch the popular musical, "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.". The on-duty fireman charged with battling any blazes that broke out was armed with only two tubes of "patent powder" (which proved useless in combating the huge blaze) and the theater lacked fire hoses and any other means by which fires breaking out over the fireman's head could be battled. Furthermore, the asbestos fire curtain got "stuck" before it reached the full "down" position inasmuch as projecting lamps and/or cheap wooden tracks got in the way. These problems, coupled with others which will be discussed shortly, led to the inevitable tragedy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Eastland Memorial Society. (n.d.). The Iroquois Theater fire. Retrieved August 8, 2006, from <http://www.inficad.com/~ksup/iroquois.html>
• O'Brien, Ellen, and Benedict, Lyle. (2001). 1903, December 30: Iroquois Theater fire. Deaths, Disturbances, Disasters and Disorders in Chicago. Retrieved August 8, 2006, from <http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/iroquois_fire.html>
• Zasky, Jason. (2005). Burning down the house. Failure Magazine Archives. Retrieved August 8, 2006 from <http://www.failuremag.com/arch_history_iroquois_theatre.html>

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