The Cost of Fire Prevention: Illinois Fires that Changed Building Codes

Death has always been our greatest teacher and its lessons that have come with the highest of costs. When tragedy strikes we are shocked and we mourn, however we also learn, we adapt, and with any amount of hope we prevent the same tragedy from happening again. With the Great Chicago Fire, Iroquois Theater fire, Our Lady of Angels school fire, and St. Anthony Hospital fire to name a few, the State of Illinois has born a heavy burden in the name of improving fire prevention across the Nation. The two tragedies I will discuss in the following paper are the Iroquois Theater fire and the St. Anthony Hospital fire.

Located in Chicago, Illinois the Iroquois Theater, built in 1903, was said to be fire proof. “It would prove as unburnable as the Titanic would prove unsinkable nine years later” (Secter, 2017). The theatre was packed with almost 2000 people for a Wednesday matinee performance of “Mr. Blue Beard”. Most of the Theater’s guests were women and children as school was still on break for Christmas. The fire struck during the second act after what was described as an “arc of light” sputtered on stage. One actor initially tried to calm the crowd but as the flames grew in intensity panic set in. Of the 27 exits most were hidden by drapes or locked to prevent people from sneaking in to see the show. In the end over 600 people were killed. Following this fire code was reformed to state that all theater exit doors must be clearly marked and even if they are locked from the outside they must be able to be opened from the inside. This was one of the fires that helped introduce the panic bar in the United States.

St. Anthony’s Hospital in Effingham, Illinois had been the county’s only hospital since 1873 however it was old and outdated lacking many protective elements found in more modern buildings. The city of Effingham had planned to replace the outdated structure with a new more modern structure in 1951 but on April 4, 1949 a fire broke out that would leave the hospital in ruins. A cause of the fire has never been determined however several deficiencies contributed to the fire’s ability to spread. The hospital had no fire alarm so the fire was able to burn for some time before the fire department was notified. The local fire department was small and had only three pumping apparatus which limited their ability to rescue people off of the top floors. “The combination of combustible building materials in the open corridors, stairwells, and vertical shafts, along with lack of fire sprinklers, detectors, and alarms had essentially doomed the hospital as soon as the fire began” (Grove, 2016). In all 74 people died which included nurses, nuns, patients, a priest, and a hospital superintendent who ran into the flames to rescue his wife. Following the fire the Governor of Illinois directed the State Fire Marshal to review fire safety in all hospitals to identify safety deficiencies to be corrected. As a direct result of this fire the entire nation adopted fire codes regarding safety features to protect patients who cannot be quickly evacuated.

In both of these events oversight and potentially negligence resulted in dangerous situations that allowed many citizens to be killed. We learned important lessons and improved ourselves and our communities with the information that we learned. This is why code compliance is so critical. Although it may cost more money in the short term, the added safety in the value of the lives that are no longer at risk is not measurable by monetary standards. You cannot put a price on a life.

References

Secter, Bob. (2017) The Iroquois Theatre Fire retrieved from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-iroquoisfire-story-story.html.

Grove, Adam. (2016). St. Anthony’s Hospital Fire: Introduction retrieved from: http://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=416856&p=2840529