Fire In The Grove By John C. Esposito

In this report I will explore the book Fire in The grove written by the author John C. Esposito. The book specifically describes the event of the fire, the reasons behind it, and who was responsible for this horrific disaster. The author explains that the main reasons of the fire were the structure of The Grove and the layout it was portrayed in. Later giving solutions on how to react if such incident happens as I explain further in the report.

The Cocoanut Grove, Boston’s most well known nightclub, burns into flames on a Saturday night on November 28, 1942. It was the largest nightclub fire in the United States; one of the most horrific tragedies, that killed 492 people, injured some severely, and traumatized others for the rest

For example, Fire Commissioner, Paul Christian, who had department’s records of the Grove fire. Also, firefighter, William Noonan whom the fire was his special province assisted Esposito while writing his book.
An official site dedicated to this specific Boston incident with a title of, “A Project of the Cocoanut Grove Coalition” confirms specific events mentioned by the author including the accuracy of the time of fire, area, and number of people killed. The site also mentions the owner of the club, Barnett Welansky, and what expansions and illegal actions he had done to the club.
The trio; Barnett Welansky, owner of the nightclub, his brother James Welansky, the one who was in charge of the club the night of the fire, and Jacob Goldfine, the Grove’s wine steward, were convicted with involuntary manslaughter and were sentenced to almost twenty years in

Before 1942, very little was known about burn treatments. New methods were developed would help in saving many lives during the following years.
If a similar structure built today were built in the same way The Cocoanut Grove was built it would definitely go through the same fate if a fire had occurred. If the structure did not have enough emergency doors or had locked ones it would make the evacuation process extremely harder leading people to panic and to several accidents and most likely deaths. Also having fusible doors and inflammable materials is important, although they might be more expensive the safety of a human is more valuable than money.
Towards the end of the book Esposito proposes the reader with advice to help prevent such disaster to happen again. Some of his tips to avoid being caught in a public building on fire are to look for exits as soon as you enter the place. In addition, he to reacting if a fire alarm goes of or the smell of smoke becomes obvious. One of the most important things is to decrease an individual’s panic because it increases the chances of being able to escape and not getting