| Date | March 10, 1941 |
|---|---|
| Time | Around 12:45 AM |
| Location | Strand Theatre 15 School Street Brockton, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°04′59″N71°01′10″W / 42.08306°N 71.01944°W |
| Cause | Undetermined |
| Deaths | 13 [1] |
| Non-fatal injuries | 20 [1] |
The Strand Theatre fire occurred in Brockton, Massachusetts on March 10, 1941. Thirteen firefighters were killed when the roof collapsed, making it the deadliest firefighter disaster in Massachusetts. [2]
At around 11:45 p.m. on March 9, 1941, theater manager Frank Clements locked up the building. Around 12:45 a.m., members of the Shoe City Club noticed smoke coming from the building and notified its caretaker, Horace Spencer. Spencer sounded the first alarm at 12:45 a.m. and the second was sounded five minutes later. The fire started in the basement, but at around 1:20 a.m. it spread into the balcony, which led Chief Frank F. Dickinson to order a general alarm. [3] According to investigators, the heat of the fire distorted steel trusses above the ceiling, which pushed the brick walls of the theater back and caused the roof to collapse. [1] The collapse occurred around 1:50 a.m. while four crews were inside fighting the fire. [3] 12 firefighters were killed in the collapse and a thirteenth died at Brockton Hospital two days later. [4] The cause of the fire was never determined.
A small anthracite coal memorial built by a firefighter from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was placed in Brockton City Hall. In 2008, a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) bronze statue of a firefighter kneeling in grief, with the names of the 13 men killed in the fire engraved on a base, was placed in City Hall Plaza. [1]