My friend who owns my favorite bookshop kept telling me about this book. I wasn't all that interested. Then last Saturday, he put a copy in my hands and ordered me to read it so I did. On July 6, 1944, several thousand people attended the afternoon show of the Ringling Bros. And Barnum and Baily Circus under the big tent. Just as the show started, the tent caught on fire. The result was death and mayhem. This books chronicles the people involved. Those with the circus and those who were injured or had loved ones killed in the blaze or trampled. There are, of course, many who where there that day who are still alive to tell the story today. O'Nan does a great job of telling the story. ( )

This book tells the harrowing tale of the Hartford, Connecticut, circus fire in 1945. This isn't one of the more famously remembered fires, such as the Triangle Factory Fire of the Cocoanut Grove fires. However, 167 people did lose their lives; most women and children as this particular show was a matinee and men the ages of 18-45 were off at war. One thing is certain, there weren't any hard and fast conclusions as to how it started and even Miss 1565 is still unidentified as to this day. I remember hearing about some of the real personages involved in this fire: Emmett Kelly, Robert Ringling, The Flying Wallendas, etc. My only complaint were the one liners about a person or an employee and no more is known other than their name. To me, that was just words for words sake. 384 pages ( )

A very thorough report on this terrible fire with a good balance of humanity and fact. Something about tragedies like this draw us to them. I'm not sure if it is because we try and imagine how we would act in a similar situation or whether it is morbid curiosity. Perhaps some of both. Read if you are interested in historical tragedies. ( )

Circus Fire: The True Story of an American Tragedy by Stewart O’Nan

★★★

On July 6, 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut a fire would rage out of control at the circus taking place, killing over a hundred children and adults and injuring many, many more.

The first thing that interested me about this book was the intro. Stewart O’Nan is not an historian. He is novelist. He admits fairly quickly that he had no urge to write this book due to lack of writing such subjects but took it on. This is mostly interesting because in the past, reading history books from those inexperienced in how to write them, have ended badly for me. Luckily, that was not the case for this book. My main complaint was reading it on the Kindle. The amount of typos and lack of punctuation took away from the story. I had whole paragraphs that just didn’t have periods, where it was obvious they were supposed to be. And that was just the beginning.

I started this book in January and while good, it took a lot out of me at times. Reading about so much tragedy and death was exhausting and after my loss, reading this book became that much more difficult but with a mere 40 pages left, I figured it was time to finish the book. It’s an interesting part of history that has been forgotten over time (and as the remaining survivors dwindles) that still holds many mysteries (such as how was it started). This book definitely isn’t for everyone. It deals with tragedy and not everyone is into the history genre but it is fascinating and probably more so if you read a copy that doesn’t have so many spelling and punctuation errors ;-).
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On a hot July 6th afternoon in 1944 eager citizens of Hartford, Connecticut, gathered under the big top of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus tent. The audience of nearly 9,000 was made up of mostly women and children as it was a weekday and many men were at work. Just as two wild animal acts were finishing their performances the dreaded cry of "Fire" was heard and within minutes the circus tent was fully engulfed in flames. The common practice in those days was to waterproof the canvas tent roof with a mixture of parrafin and gasoline which only added to the rapid spread of the deadly flames. The panic striken crowd rushed toward exits that were difficult to see through the thick smoke and the melting parrifin soaked pieces of canvas falling from the sky. Many people were crushed under the stampeding crowd while others were burned beyond recognition in the fire. In total 167 people died and over 400 needed hospitalization. After a sorrowful week of survivors claiming their loved one's bodies, most only recognizable by personal effects or dental records, six remained unidentified most surprisingly a young girl whose face was unmarked but would be buried as Little Miss 1565.

O'Nan painstakingly details the fire and its aftermath the last third of the book focusing on legal battles between the circus, the city of Hartford, and the survivors and families of the deceased. Although the circus executives stated that they were unable to obtain fireproofing material for their tents as it was war time and the Army would not release the solutions to commercial enterprises, several of the circus top men were sentenced to prison for negligence and involuntary manslaughter. The cause of the fire was never definitively determined although rumors of arson by disgruntled ex-empolyees or a serial arsonist were investigated. This is an obviously well-researched book and it was very good, if very heartrending.
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