Anthony P. Hatch, Tinder Box

Anthony Hatch's Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903 is an often riveting account of the worst single-building fire in U.S. history, which claimed the lives of roughly 600 people in Chicago on December 30, 1903. Hatch tells the story of the tragedy thoroughly and sympathetically, with plentiful brief sketches of victims as well as those who were lucky enough to survive. He also recounts the post-fire aftermath, which astoundingly resulted in no criminal convictions against the Iroquois' management or city officials, all of whom were clearly negligent in failing to prevent the catastrophe.

Most notably, Hatch meticulously catalogs the appallingly long list of safety deficiencies at the Iroquois which contributed to the disaster: lack of sprinklers, woefully inadequate fire extinguishers, highly flammable stage scenery and curtains, a safety curtain which was purportedly made of fireproof asbestos but turned out to be stuffed with incendiary wood pulp, never-completed fire escapes, exit doors which were either locked or opened inward, lack of exit signs, a grand staircase whose design virtually ensured trampling, and ushers who were completely untrained in fire safety and evacuation procedures. Despite these glaring deficiencies, the city allowed the theater to open, and had already been in operation for five weeks--with nothing being fixed--when the fire struck.

We'd all like to think that the Iroquois happened a long time ago, and that safety awareness has advanced to the point that a tragedy of this magnitude couldn't happen again. Perhaps of this magnitude, no, but the recent Chicago examples of the Cook County Administration Building highrise and the E2 nightclub, as well as The Station nightclub in West Warrick, Rhode Island, all show that we still have a lot to learn.