Spectator at Circus Tells of Panic

Pandemonium Comes as Flames Break Out in Circus Tent

By Edward Bunn
HARTFORD, Conn., July 6 – (INS) – There were seven in my particular family group at the circus when the flash fire consumed the main tent. We were sitting in the fourth row from the top tier. The animal act had just finished, about 15 minutes after the matinee performance began. We sat back to watch for the next entrance, when suddenly there was a cry of “fire.”

Instantly the crowd took up the shout. Pandemonium broke loose. Right off the main entrance, a section of the tent about five feet square was ablaze. While I glanced in the direction of the fire it spread past the main entrance, ever wider and ever upward and within five to six minutes it seemed that the whole main tent was a fiery canvas.
A capacity crowd filled the big tent and thousands rushed toward the main entrance, which by now was being used as the main exit right through the flames. I'm sure most of the casualties were caused there, for the people trampled over one another.
Circus attendants tried their best to maintain order, but with the big tent fast turning into a fiery shroud it was a case of everyone for himself. Try as the attendants did, and they really did make an effort to maintain order, there was no holding back the crowd to divert them to better exits where exit would have been more tacile[sic].
By now the canvas behind me had begun to blaze furiously. I gathered my group about me and we clambered to the top drop from where all of us jumped about 15 feet and squeezed under the guy ropes to safety.
It was a narrow escape for us and I wonder now why others in the upper rows did not attempt the same manner of escape instead of surging around among the thousands in the arena.

The Lowell Sun Massachusetts 1944-07-06
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!