The day the clowns cried: The story of the Hartford circus fire

April 06-- Apr. 6--On July 6, 1944, just a month after the D-Day invasion, thousands of people flocked to the North End of Hartford for a matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers Circus, which had debuted in the city just the night before after arriving late from Providence.

It was a typical sunny July afternoon in the Northeast with temperatures approaching 90 degrees accompanied by stifling humidity. But shortly after the performance began the crowd of mostly women and children would become witnesses to and victims of an atypical twist that would go down as the worst avoidable disaster in the Capital City's history.

WHAT HAPPENED

The circus rolled into town late in the day on July 5, but because of delays in getting to Hartford from Providence the matinee show scheduled for that day had to be cancelled. An evening show was held in the big top tent that could accommodate just over 9,000 patrons, according to circus officials. Local newspapers carried stories and photos of the caravan of performers and animals making the trek from Union Station downtown northward up Main Street to the circus venue on a 9-acre vacant city-owned lot on Barbour Street.

According to interviews with hundreds of circus-goers that day the heat was equally oppressive inside the 550 foot-long, 220 foot-wide tent when the performance began at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon.

About 40 minutes into the show shouts of "fire" rang out in the tent, which had been water proofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of gasoline and and 1,800 pounds of paraffin wax.

PANIC SETS IN

The cry set off a panic in the stands. Many of those nearest the main entrance, where the fire first appeared behind the bleacher seats on the southwest side of the tent, ran to safety through the entrance or by jumping off the the tops of bleachers and grandstands and then escaping by going under the side tent flaps, some of which were sliced open with pocket knives by those who got out first.

Others decided to work their way east out the back entrance toward Main Street but some ran into a blockade produced by three-and-a-half foot tall metal chutes that were being used by animals to leave the center ring and go back outside to cages parked on the north side of the tent. A number of bodies would be discovered piled up by the chute, which also blocked one of nine exits from the big top. At least two people survived inside the body pile, untouched by the fire. When the fire broke out the circus band played the Stars and Stripes Forever, a warning to performers that they should leave the tent. the Flying Wallendas, were poised to begin their trapeze act but descended from their perches high a top the three ring circus and evacuated.

THE DEATH TOLL

According to eyewitness accounts, the 48-foot tall big top burned in less than 10 minutes. Flaming canvass, sealed with gasoline and paraffin wax burned some to death. Extreme heat suffocated others and and the ensuing panic also resulted in trampling deaths. All told, 168 people, including 100 children perished. Nearly 700 more were injured, some scarred, disfigured and disabled for life. The death toll included 59 children who were 9-years-old or younger.

An investigation after the fire showed that there were 30 pails containing 12 quarts of water each beneath the bleachers, only a few of which were used in an attempt to stop the spread of flames. None of the circus's 36 fire extinguishers were inside the tent that day, according to witness statements.

THE AFTERMATH

Even though Ringling Brothers carried only about $600,000 in liability insurance at the time of the fire, it would go on to pay just shy of $4 million in claims for the families of 698 dead and injured who filed claims. The last payment to families was made in 1950. The last legal action was taken in 1969, when the award to the late Charles Tomalonis was turned over to the state because he had no heirs.

The bodies of six victims of the circus fire were not identified. Six people who attended the circus that day were also declared missing. The dead were buried in graves marked with the coroner's ID number in Northwoods Cemetery on the Hartford-Windsor line four days after the fire. One victim, Eleanor Cook,who had been known as "Little Miss 1565" would eventually be identified by a family member and reburied in Massachusetts. The others remain under number markers nearly 75 years later.

Several circus officials also went to prison for charges related to the fire. In the aftermath the use of highly flammable water proofing was discontinued or outlawed. Hartford officials and cities around the country also changed how circuses and other carnivals were allowed to operate.

___

(c)2019 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)

Visit The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.) at www.courant.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.