NFPA Journal - January/February 2018 - 88

RECALLING 'THE
SADDEST FIRE'

THE LAURIER PALACE THEATRE
FIRE OF 1927-MONTREAL, CANADA
By Angelo Verzoni

ith 77 fatalities under the age of 16,
it's easy to understand why the Laurier Palace Theatre fire is sometimes
referred to as "the saddest fire."
In the early afternoon of January
9, 1927, hundreds of children were gathered at the
movie theater in Montreal, Quebec, for a showing
of the comedy Get 'Em Young. A discarded cigarette
ignited a fire that sent smoke creeping up into the
balcony where the children were seated, and panic
ensued. Youngsters rushed to get out, but a single
steep and narrow stairwell, coupled with exit doors
that opened inward, resulted in a jam. There were
also reports of theater employees attempting to
keep the children from leaving. Seventy-eight people

88 | NFPA JOURNAL * J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8

FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY

were killed, only one older than
16; several were around 5 years
old. About two dozen of the victims were crushed to death as
the throng struggled to escape.
Olivier Racette, who was 13
years old at the time, recalled
the chaotic scene in an interview with The Montreal Gazette
in 1982. "Many youngsters had
fallen and were being trampled on by others," he told the
newspaper. "Everybody was
pushing, shoving, fighting to
get through...My heart was
pounding like crazy as heavy
smoke clouded up the stairway.
I was choking, [I] couldn't see."
According to an NFPA bulletin on the fire, the theater had been cited
a number of times by Montreal's fire department for failing to comply
with laws relating to the maintenance of unobstructed exits. The stairwell was narrow and lacked handrails or emergency lighting. In fact,
the business had lost its license to operate about eight months prior to
the blaze, but authorities hadn't shut it down. "Anyone could have recognized the glaring hazards of this building," the bulletin states.
The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) lists the Laurier Palace Theatre
fire alongside other monumental fires of the 20th century as an event
that shaped the country's building codes, reportedly leading to a stronger emphasis on means of egress and requiring that doors in public
buildings open outward.
Beyond the influence the blaze had on codes, it also had a peculiar
cultural impact that lasted over three decades. At the time of the fire,
an existing Quebec law forbade children under 16 from attending
movies unaccompanied by someone older. But the rule was rarely
enforced by theaters. After the fire, though, people who considered film
viewing to be a threat to children's morals seized upon the moment to
strengthen and extend the law to prohibit even accompanied children
from visiting theaters. The ban remained in effect until 1961.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs
that document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers and to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire
Record Department, the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information and compiling statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in "Looking
Back" are drawn from this collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information, visit nfpa.org/library.

NFPA

Looking Back

http://www.nfpa.org/library

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - January/February 2018