Iroquois Theater Fire of 1903

On this day in 1903, A massive fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago.
       
    The Iroquois had only been built just a month prior and was considered one of the most beautiful temples of drama in the Midwest.  It had also been advertised as "Absolutely Fireproof"*, but unfortunately, it anything but.  As construction of the place had fallen behind schedule earlier that year, the owners took shortcuts in order to insure that the Iroquois would be completed on the appointed date.  Among other things the fire exits were never completed, there were no sprinkler systems, alarm boxes, or even telephones installed (and this at a time when telephones were no longer a novelty), and the asbestos curtain which could lowered in case a fire broke out onstage, was made of flammable canvas.  The result was a death trap waiting to happen.
      There were 2,000 people, mostly women and children,who were in attendance that fateful afternoon for a performance of a popular comedy called Mr. Bluebeard.  The seats were all filled, but many people had filled the space behind the back rows and some had brought camp chairs and watched from the aisles.  After the start of Act 2 during the "Pale Moonlight" sequence, an arc light shorted and ignited a drop curtain.  The various backstage workers tried to put the fire, but were unsuccessful. People didn't notice what was going on until bits of the burning curtain began to drop down to the stage.  The fire grew out of control and went out into the auditorium.  When people tired to flee the fire, they found that they could not escape because the ushers had locked the accordion gates to prevent people from sneaking down to better seats, and the fire exits were unfinished.  As a result 602 people were killed in the inferno.  
     In the aftermath of the blaze, new codes were put in place to prevent massive fires like this from happening again.  Today we have lighted EXIT signs over fire exits so that people know how where they can escape.  Doors in public places swing outward and have panic bars to keep people from getting trapped inside.  And in theaters, rules are now in place to keep people out of the aisles during performances.  These are only a few of the new rules, but it's because of disasters like the deadly Iroquois Theater Fire that they exist.  
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 *This idea was repeated nine years later with a certain ocean liner.