NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 13
NEWS FROM NFPA
AND BEYOND
A FIRE THAT 'DEFIED LOGIC'
NFPA
Grant first dug deep into the Cocoanut Grove fire in 1991,
when he wrote an NFPA Journal article ahead of the fire's
50th anniversary. As he interviewed survivors, a firefighter,
a serviceman, and the emergency room physician who
treated the wounded, he was struck by the many details
corroborating the fire's rapid spread. "This thing traveled
so fast in the early stages-dramatically fast," Grant said. "It
defied all logic."
It also behaved unusually in other ways. Unlike in the
Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003, where
essentially everything and everyone trapped inside was
incinerated by the fast-moving, extremely hot fire, the
Cocoanut Grove fire left combustibles like wooden furniture
and palm trees unburned. "Much of the cloth, rattan and
bamboo contained in the Melody Lounge, and on the sides
and lower walls of the stairway leading therefrom, was, in
fact, not burned at all, and the same is true of the carpet
on the stairway, contrary to all usual fire experience," then-
Boston Fire Commissioner William Arthur Reilly wrote in
his report on the fire.
Reilly also described the fire's rapid spread. "When the
flame appeared in the street floor lobby it was described as
traveling rapidly as 'a ball of fire' below the ceiling," he said.
Grant explained that while no theories for the fire's rapid
spread have been discounted, one has gained more traction in
recent years. The theory suggests a leak of methyl chloride, a
flammable refrigerant being used by the club at the time, may
have caused the rapid fire spread. Because the United States
had entered World War II less than a year before, nonflammable chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants like Freon were in short
supply, so the club was using methyl chloride instead.
But there's a hole in this theory, Grant said. Methyl chloride
is nearly three times heavier than air, so if it had been leaking,
why didn't it sink to the ground? The fire, on the other hand,
was described by witnesses as spreading in high places like on
the ceiling and on the tops of the club's decorative palm trees.
t
FAST + FURIOUS
A diagram created
shortly after the
1942 Cocoanut
Grove fire depicts
a cutaway view of
the club's ground
floor, with paths of
fire spread added
by NFPA Journal.
The green circle
at bottom center
shows the spot in
the basement, in
the Melody Lounge,
where the fire is
thought to have
begun, possbily the
result of a match
dropped into a decorative potted plant.
The fire spread
through the lounge
before climbing
the stairs at bottom
right and racing
through much of
the main level. The
club's only entrance
was a revolving
door that quickly
became jammed as
patrons attempted
to exit the building.
The fire killed 492
people.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL
| 13
http://nfpa.org/journal
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - May/June 2017
Contents
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - Contents
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 3
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 4
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 5
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 6
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NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - 16
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - I1
NFPA Journal - May/June 2017 - I2
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