A review by xxstefaniereadsxx
The Circus Fire by Stewart O'Nan
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This book is about the Hartford Circus fire, that occurred in Hartford, Connecticut on July 06, 1944. The circus was produced by Ringling Brothers- Barnum And Bailey. Somewhere between 6-8,000 people were in attendance, but there is not a definite number. Some estimates give around 10,000 people. There were a lot of factors that contributed to the loss of 167 people and the injury of hundreds more. One of those is that circus shows were still being held under tents. The tents were made of canvas, treated with a waterproofing method that included the melting of wax cut with gasoline and brushed on the canvas. Fireproofing was not done. Another factor was the decreased amount of circus workers. A lot of the workers were gone because World War II was still going on, which made the few that remained responsible for double the work. The tents were erected over dry, freshly mowed grass, with wood shavings put down for flooring. A lot of the exits were blocked by equipment and the chutes for the big cat performances that were done at the beginning of the show. (At the time of the fire, the big cat show had just ended, and the cats were still inside the tent.)
The descriptions of injuries in this book were quite grim, so if that isn't something you can deal with, probably do not read it. Many of those that died were not killed by smoke inhalation, as is common in a lot of fires. They actually burned to death. I have always personally been terrified of a drowning death, but death via fire is so ghastly that it has moved to the top of my fear list. Many of them were actually burned by the waterproofing substance that melted and ran down on them. Those that survived still had serious burns to contend with, not to mention the absolute trauma of the event, seeing the things they must have saw... horrible. Some bodies were never identified.
I would like to mention that at the beginning of the book, a few other circus fires were mentioned. One of those was a train that was smashed into by another train, whose driver was asleep and missed all the signals to stop. Many of those are buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. They are marked as unknowns, as they could not be identified, and are buried under an elephant tombstone. It's called Showman's Rest, and is a popular destination for obscura tourists and others.
This was a really good book. I had never heard of this fire before I read this book. I also really liked that it included a lot of pictures of what the circus looked like before and after the fire, and included a diagram of the seating. I've only been to one circus and it was held in an arena, not a tent. I was about eight, so I was very unfamiliar with circus tent performances. I always get amazed at the lack of fire safety when I read books like this, and I am unsure if it is because fire safety has changed so much in the years after these types of events, or if it is because I grew up in a firefighter household. Either way, it is nice to see that there have been steps taken to try to prevent similar experiences from happening. I thought this book was very well researched, and the story was written in a way that was gripping and factual.
The descriptions of injuries in this book were quite grim, so if that isn't something you can deal with, probably do not read it. Many of those that died were not killed by smoke inhalation, as is common in a lot of fires. They actually burned to death. I have always personally been terrified of a drowning death, but death via fire is so ghastly that it has moved to the top of my fear list. Many of them were actually burned by the waterproofing substance that melted and ran down on them. Those that survived still had serious burns to contend with, not to mention the absolute trauma of the event, seeing the things they must have saw... horrible. Some bodies were never identified.
I would like to mention that at the beginning of the book, a few other circus fires were mentioned. One of those was a train that was smashed into by another train, whose driver was asleep and missed all the signals to stop. Many of those are buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois. They are marked as unknowns, as they could not be identified, and are buried under an elephant tombstone. It's called Showman's Rest, and is a popular destination for obscura tourists and others.
This was a really good book. I had never heard of this fire before I read this book. I also really liked that it included a lot of pictures of what the circus looked like before and after the fire, and included a diagram of the seating. I've only been to one circus and it was held in an arena, not a tent. I was about eight, so I was very unfamiliar with circus tent performances. I always get amazed at the lack of fire safety when I read books like this, and I am unsure if it is because fire safety has changed so much in the years after these types of events, or if it is because I grew up in a firefighter household. Either way, it is nice to see that there have been steps taken to try to prevent similar experiences from happening. I thought this book was very well researched, and the story was written in a way that was gripping and factual.