Fires in Theatres

Fires in Theatres. Fire was once a major hazard in the theatre. Both the London Patent Theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, were burnt down twice, the first in 1672 and 1809, the second in 1808 and 1856. The first recorded theatre fire in America was that of the Federal Street Theatre in Boston in 1798, and between then and 1876, when the Brooklyn Theatre went up in flames with the loss of about 300 lives, including two members of the cast, over 75 serious fire disasters were reported. In Richmond, Va., 70 people were killed in 1811 when the candles of a stage chandelier set fire to the scenery. The introduction of gas lighting, coupled with the vogue for very large theatres, caused heavy death-rolls in 19th-century disasters: in the Lehman Theatre in St Petersburg in 1836 there were 800 casualties; in Quebec in 1846, 50; in Karlsruhe a year later, 631; in Leghorn in 1857, 100. The greatest disaster of all time, however, was probably the fire in a Chinese theatre in 1845 which killed 1,670.

Even after the introduction of more stringent fire regulations in Britain in 1878, the Theatre Royal, Exeter, was burnt down in 1885, rebuilt, and again destroyed by fire in 1887, with 186 killed. In America, where strong safety measures were taken after the Brooklyn fire, the supposedly fireproof Iroquois Theatre in Chicago was the scene in 1903 of the worst such catastrophe in the history of the American theatre. A fire in an overcrowded auditorium, though quickly controlled, led to a panic which resulted in the loss of over 600 lives. With the introduction of electric lighting, fireproofing of stage materials, and a comprehensive code of fire regulations which laid the onus for prevention of fire on theatre managers, conditions improved, and fires in theatres are now rare.