Philip Covarrubias Covarrubias 1
Fire 101-10
Friday 0900-1150
12-06-2013
Iroquois Theater Fire
The Iroquois Theatre (Theater) Fire occurred on December 30, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. It is the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history. A total of 602 people died as a result of the fire.
The theatre had three audience levels. The main floor (known as the "orchestra" or "parquet") was on the same level as the Foyer or Grand Stair Hall. The second level (the "dress circle") and the third level (the "gallery") were accessed through broad stairways that led off the foyer. The backstage areas were unusually large, with dressing rooms on five levels, an uncommonly large fly gallery (where scenery was hung), and even an elevator available to transport actors down to the stage level. The Iroquois was Chicago's newest and most polished theater, built by architect Benjamin Marshall, who had studied many fires over the years and had tried to make this particular building as safe as possible. The Iroquois was designed in the image of a famous Paris opera house, and the four-story structure contained elaborates stained glass windows and polished wood. The lobby of the Iroquois had a sixty-foot high ceiling and marble walls, and Marshall had put in as many as twenty-five exits that supposedly would allow a capacity crowd to escape any problems in less than five minutes. A curtain made of asbestos was supposed to be present, one that could be lowered from above the stage to protect the audience in case of a fire that started there.
But common sense did not prevail when it came to the seats in the Iroqu...
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...ned hysteria. But the exit doors opened inward, and the crush of bodies against the people trying to open them did not allow them to do so. Also, many of the side doors were locked. The Iroquois was plunged into darkness as the lights went out, and the fire, fueled by the air coming in from the rear doors, exploded throughout the main auditorium.
When the fire company arrived, everything appeared normal, as there was no smoke coming out of the Iroquois Theater at first. But when they went into the building, they could not open the doors because of the bodies that were stacked against them. The death toll in the upper balconies was tremendous, as the fire escape supposedly leading down to the street a hundred feet below was found to be non-existent, leaving some to jump or fall to their death from the great height. As many as 150 people met their fate in this manner.
In order to better understand the dynamics of this fire, one must first take a look at the background of the building and the conditions that existed prior to the fire. At the time of the fire, the 54,000 square foot building was divided into nineteen separate rooms (Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire D-10). The original building was built in the 1940’s, but had recently been subject to numerous remodeling and additions. According to the "Investigative Report to the Governor", the construction type of the building was "unprotected non-combustible" and the fire resistance rating of the roof-ceiling was undetermined. There were suspended ceilings of plaster throughout the first and second floors, with a 3-foot airspace between the ceiling and the roof. The 1970 expansion projects, including the kitchen, Garden Room and Cabaret room were one story concrete block ...
In West Warwick Rhode Island, on February 20th, 2003, during the performance of the band Great White, a fire broke out that eventually claimed the lives of 100 people and injured an additional 200. The band’s tour manager arranged for, and ignited pyrotechnic props, large fireworks designed to display a shower of sparks. The sparks ignited foam soundproofing near stage. The fire spread quickly. Most were killed either in the crush to exit the building or overcome by fumes while trying to find an exit. The immediate cause was well documented due to witness reports and a videotape that was taken during the concert. In the period that followed the tragedy there were many attempts to fix blame. Following a Grand Jury investigation, several of the parties involved plead guilty to violations of the law and served or are currently sentences in prison.
Fires were a very common obstacle at the time, but nothing was even close to the fire of 1871. On October 8th, firefighters received a call from the neighbor of Catherine O’Leary. Neighbors reported seeing a number of flames coming from the cow barn. Firemen instantly spotted the fire, but miscalculated how big it really was. This event was historically known as the Chicago Fire of 1871 (“People 7 Events”).
high winds. Many of the people were burned and buried in the smashed up bricks
On July 10, 2001 four U.S Forest Service Firefighters died while battling the thirty mile fire. Six others injured including two hikers. The thirty mile fire was the second deadliest fire in Washington state history.
Approaching the auditorium from outside, one can see clearly what is on the inside due to the large glass windows and doors that cover about half of the front view of the building. In the large lobby, there are bathrooms, drinking fountains, the ticket office, and doors that lead to the hallway to the auditorium. This hallway has a fork, giving the people who enter the choice of entering the auditorium on the left or right side. When the hallway ends, there are seats that seem never ending, even though there are only about 1500 seats. The seats are split into two tiers, a lower tier and an upper tier. The lower tier is the main level and is close to the stage, while the upper tier is a mezzanine with stairs that lead to the rows of seats, with the seats farthest from the stage being the highest seats in the auditorium. Within each tier, there are three sections: left, middle, and right. The left and right are angled to the stage, while the middle section is parallel with the front of the stage. These separate sections allow for easy access to the seats because there are aisles on both left and right of every section o...
To begin with, during the year of 1870 and 1871 Chicago was facing extreme drought. During that time period the city of Chicago was built mostly from wood, making everything extremely flammable. Richard Bales author of “The Great Chicago Fire” states in an online article, “October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.” Although we are not certain what and how the fire started, we know that it quickly spread. Legends say that the O’Leary’s cow knocked over one of the fire lamps therefore starting this massive fire. You might be asking yourself, how is it possible for a small fire to spread so quickly? “Hot air rose from the flames and mixed with the cool air above it, creating convection whirls. Witnesses called them "fire devils." A fire devil could pick up a burning piece of wood and send it flying. New fires started where the flaming objects landed. (McHugh)” Firefighters were exhausted from fighting a large fire the night before; and were sent to the wrong neighborhood at first. After finally arrivin...
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
Seneca has a strong opinion on the liberal arts and the liberal study’s in general. He thinks students are only focused on the worldly skills, and not the skills of life. Students are lacking the common knowledge on how to treat others and losing sight in what it takes to become a decent human being. In “Liberal Studies and Education” by Seneca, the path to virtue is through self-awareness. Throughout Seneca’s letter he states his views on liberal education and how important it is in life, students can’t just focus on worldly things, they need to focus on the things we take with us after death. The mind is important, but in Seneca’s letter, he feels the soul should get the most attention in the education field, virtue being his main idea. The effects of virtue are illustrated through the characteristics of, kindness, love for the common man, and inner strength.
...pectors had determined that the reason on which the fire had rapidly spread was due to many structural and design flaws. Wires not being grounded correctly, a fire alarm that never rung or let out a peep. The stairwell which was a critical escape path overwhelmed by smoke. Other defects located in the air conditioning systems, all which helped the smoke spread. Despite of 83 building code violations, no one was ever punished for the lives that were lost. Later, the Hotel was being rebuilt, and the fire marshal had issued for the hotel to pay 192000$ to install sprinklers in the casino room; the clark county building official had rejected for the fire marshal’s charge. Authorities then had said that the automatic sprinkler systems were better off installed in the first place, as they could have prevented the loss many lives and the disaster at the hotel. Even after
Hundreds of people died that day. A good portion of the women who worked at the factory died from the fire, while the others decided to jump out of the building to their death. At the end of the day, the families who had suffered a loss due to the fire received at most $75 as compensation. The corporation learned nothing from the disaster. However, this was an eye opener for some of the journalists who wanted to make a change.
War is always destructive and devastating for those involved leaving behind a trail of death and barren landscape leading to heartbreak and shattered lives. War has its subjugators and its defeated. One enjoys complete freedom and rights while the other has neither freedom nor rights. Defeated and broken is where the Eastern Woodland Indians found themselves after both the Seven Years' war and the American Revolution. The Europeans in their campaigns to garner control of the land used the native peoples to gain control and ultimately stripped the rightful owners of their land and freedoms. The remainder of this short paper will explore the losses experienced by the Eastern Woodland Indians during these wars and will answer the question of which war was more momentous in the loss experienced.
Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire fighters went to nearly 600 fires. On Saturday night there had been a large fire that destroyed about four blocks and lasted for 16 hours. Another reason why everything in Chicago was so flammable was because almost the entire city was made out of wood. It was a lot worse in the middle class and poor sections of the town (19). Just about every house was made out of wood. Even buildings that claimed to be fire proof had wood roofs covered with tar. The richer part of town had stone and brick homes, but wooden interiors, wooden stables, and wooden storage buildings (Cromie, 81). Chicago was built on marshland and every time it rained the city flooded, so to help this problem the roads were made out of wood and elevated above the waterline. The day the fire started there were over 55 miles of pine-block street and 600 miles of wooden sidewalks. “Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn,” according to Jim Murphy, author of The Great Fire (Murphy, 18).
The Mississippi burnings were nothing but an old fashioned lynching. Hidden and disguised by the help of county officials, this case was overlooked and un-trialed. Nothing was done and three innocent men lost their lives.
indoor theatre, unlike the Globe which was open to the sky, and it had the