Episode 21: The Strand Theater Fire

Part one of our Fire Series. 13 firefighters lost their lives when a roof collapsed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I'm Shannon. Welcome back to the Day Hid What podcast. I've missed you. On this podcast, we explore parts of history that have been kept hidden or swept under the rug. Now, this episode is going to be part of a series dedicated to tales of fire. So this week I'll be discussing the strand theater fire. Let's get into it. The Strand Theater formerly opened in March 1916. It was the largest playhouse in the city and could hold 1,685 patrons. So I have to break down how it was constructed so that you'll understand how the fire spread the way it did. All right. The roof was made out of wood boards on joists. And joists, our beams, lay to support the weight of whatever's laying on top of it. The joists were supported by steel trusses, and a truss is beams connected to distribute weight. So these are those triangle things you see on ceilings when a house is being built. These steel trusses were called unprotected because they can collapse quickly if exposed to extreme heat or fire. So we have a slanted wood roof sitting on top of horizontal joists being supported by steel triangles. All right. The exterior walls are made of brick, while the interior walls and the ceiling were metal lathe and plaster. And lathe is kind of like a mesh sheet that's laid down on a wall so that the plaster that's being applied has something to stick to. The ceiling was also suspended from wood trusses, those triangles. The auditorium had a 74-foot street front, was 139 feet deep and 60 feet high. The balcony covered a large portion above the auditorium, and this area, along with having seats, had the manager's office, usher's rooms, and restrooms. The area under the auditorium, which was basically the basement, only had a finished space to contain the furnace, the ventilation equipment, and the janitor's closet. The lobby of the auditorium was an open space with two staircases on each side, giving access to the balcony. And there was a long corridor that connected the lobby to the school street side of the building. That's the building. Now let's talk about the area. Brockton, Massachusetts was a working-class manufacturing city with a thriving shoe industry. It was, in fact, called the Shoe City. It had a population of 60,000 and was said to be the most active and prosperous community in the Commonwealth. The City of Brockton Fire Department had 123 paid firefighters, five engine or hose wagon companies, three ladder companies, and a specialized squad from six fire stations. So, if you had a fire in America in the 1940s, you couldn't call 911. Instead, you went to your nearest firebox. So think of it like the current fire alarm pulls that we see in buildings today. You would go to your nearest firebox and pull the alarm. Normally they were on street corners. So the alarm would be sent to the local fire station. It's not so easy as, and then they showed up at the door of the fire and saved the day. No. Instead, the firefighters would report to the box from which the alarm was pulled. And then they had to find the fire. Usually the person that pulled the alarm would wait at the box and direct the firefighters to the fire. So this all brings us to Sunday, March 9th, 1941. The Strand Theater is about 25 years old at this time. On this night, a double feature was shown. At 11:45 p.m., manager Frank Clements locked the building. So I found two different timelines with different witnesses and times, but it all comes to around 12.40 a.m. Monday, March 10th. The fire department received their first alarm from Box 1311 and sent firefighters to the scene. A second alarm came around 12.45 a.m. and a general alarm was sounded at 1.19 a.m., bringing all of Brockt's engines to the Strand Theater. Okay. I'm sorry, um, but I have to break all this down too. So I get hung up on everything. Uh so a first alarm brings out the largest response. Uh normally there are three engines and two ladders that will respond to a first alarm fire. You kind of want to have everything you need. A fire engine has a hose, while a ladder truck has a ladder and rescue equipment. A second alarm is called when you need additional help. And a general alarm is a fire that's considered serious enough to require a large-scale response. So from 1238 a.m. to 119 a.m., the Strand Theater fire went from we need help to all hands on deck in a span of 39 minutes. On the outside, the fire had come out of the southwest corner of the building and was being fought by hoses. Inside, the fire was traveling between the walls and through the ductwork, and it made its way all the way up from the basement, allegedly, to the balcony. So crews began opening up the walls and ceilings to try and find the fire in the lobby and under the balcony. At the same time, crews were making their way to the balcony to attack the fire from above. Crews in the auditorium were aiming their hoses towards the balcony to combat the flames from below. So we have firefighters in the lobby and in the auditorium trying to poke holes in the ceiling and in the walls because they've discovered that's where the fire is. Then we have firefighters on the balcony trying to hit it from above and crew members down on the auditorium floor with a hose trying to hit it from below. Well, the flames distorted the steel trusses on the ceiling of the balcony. Those are those triangles we talked about. And at 1.50 a.m., this led the roof of the balcony to collapse. The ceiling fell onto the firefighters on the balcony, and the combined weight of the collapsed ceiling, plus the men, and the fact that holes were made under the balcony, then caused the balcony itself to collapse onto the auditorium floor and on top of the firefighters below. Four fire crews were inside the building when the collapse happened, and there were 13 victims. 12 men were killed by the collapse, and a 13th died in the Brockton hospital two days later. There were an additional 20 people that were injured. So I'd like to tell you a little bit about each victim. I often find that when we talk about stories like this, we kind of look at just facts and numbers, and I think it's easy to forget that these were actual, like living, breathing, thinking, feeling people that went through these things. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about each of the 13 victims. First, we had Captain John F. Carroll from Ladder Company 3. He'd been with the fire department for 31 years and was 57 years old at the time of the fire. Captain Carroll was actually off duty on March 10th, but he was called in on that second fire alarm. He entered the building just before the collapse and was one of the first bodies pulled from the debris. Captain Carroll had left behind a wife and three children. Lieutenant Raymond A. Mitchell from Engine Company 4 was with the fire department for 22 years and was 48 years old at the time of the fire. Raymond had a wife and two children, and his son Clayton would later serve in the Brockt Fire Department. Roy A. McCarrigan from Squad A was with the department for six years. He was 42 years old and left behind a wife and two children. Dennis P. Murphy from Squad A was with the department for 22 years and was 49 years old at the time of the fire. Dennis was born in Killarney, Ireland, and immigrated to the U.S. when he was three years old. Dennis had a wife and three sons. His son Thomas was at Tufts University in Boston when the fire occurred. Thomas had heard that his father was hurt while battling a fire at the Strand, and so he took a bus to Brockton. When Thomas arrived on School Street, he saw remnants of the fire but didn't really know what had happened. But he saw a bunch of people at the Brockt Enterprise Building, so he went over there and saw his father's name on the list of the deceased. Thomas and his two brothers all became doctors. William J. Murphy from Squad A was with the department three years at the time and was 29 years old. William was the oldest of seven kids, was married, and was one of the first bodies removed from the debris. Daniel C. O'Brien from Squad A was with the department 21 years and was 45 years old. Daniel was one of 12 kids, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, was married and had two children. George A. Collins from Engine Company 1 was with the department 32 years and was 62 at the time of the tragedy. George was married and his only child, a son, was a lieutenant commander serving in Honolulu when his father passed. Frederick F. Kelly from Engine Company One was with the department 14 years and was 48 when he passed. Frederick was also off duty that day when the first alarm sounded, but was called in at the second alarm. Frederick had served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. He was assigned to the 26th Division in France during World War II, was a semi-professional baseball player prior to joining the fire department. He had a wife and two children. And Frederick was the last victim to be removed from the rubble. Martin Lipper from Engine One was with the department for 14 years and was 46 years old. Martin had served in the U.S. military, and his brother William had also worked on the Strand Fire, but he had survived. And Martin left behind a wife. Henry E. Sullivan from Engine Company One was with the department 11 years and was 45 years old. Henry and his best friend John McCollum McNeil, who's 43 from Ladder Company 3, were found next to each other in the rubble of the collapse. Both men had served in the military, were married, and had children. Matthew E. McGeary of Ladder Company 3 was with the department 21 years and was 49 years old. Matthew left behind a wife and two children, and his brother James, who was an engine company 3 firefighter. The final victim was Bartholomew Hurlihy of Ladder Company 1. Bartholomew was 45 years old and served in the military, was married, and had two children. The truck was taken out of service in 1948 and sold at auction to a farmer in New Hampshire who used it for irrigation. The farmer then sold the truck in 1980 to Bruce Eaton, who had stored it for years, occasionally bringing it out for parades. In 2019, the Squad A fire truck was bought by Dave Feiler. Dave was a firefighter and collector of antique fire trucks. After purchasing the truck from the Eaton family, Dave began to do research on the truck and learned of its presence during the Strand Fire. So Dave worked to trace the truck's serial numbers with Kenneth Gallaghan, who was a retired fire chief and president of the Brockt Museum. And the two confirmed that it was the original Brockt Fire Squad A engine. Around 2021, Dave was ready to sell the truck to Gallagher, and the Brockt Firefighters Union held an emergency meeting and voted to purchase the truck. The truck was part of the 80th anniversary ceremony of the Strand Theater Fire. The cause of the fire has never been determined. It was decided that the unprotected steel trusses became distorted by the fire, and that that is what led to the ceiling collapse. In 2008, a firefighter from Scranton, Pennsylvania created a memorial for the fallen firefighters. It's a 10-foot-tall bronze statue of a firefighter kneeling, and it has the names of the 13 victims engraved on the base. This statue can be seen in Brockton City Hall. That's all for this story. Come back next week to learn what else has been hidden.