Mar. 10—BROCKTON, MA — The Strand Theatre, situated in Brockton's bustling downtown business district, was showing the film "Hoosier School Boy," starring Mickey Rooney, followed by "Secret Evidence," on Sunday, March 9, 1941.
It was a busy and normal evening for the theater at Main and School streets, which sat 1,685 people.
Hours after the last showing, early into Monday morning, the night custodian, Christopher Moore, discovered a fire in the basement below the candy counter and instructed his helper, Roger Thunert, to activate fire alarm box 1311 at Main and High streets.
The Brockton Fire Department received the box alarm at 12:38 a.m. and sent the first apparatus to the scene. A second alarm followed at 12:44 a.m., and finally a general alarm at 1:19 a.m., bringing all of the city's firefighters to the scene, including those who were off-duty that morning.
When firefighters first arrived, all indications were that they were not dealing with a very serious fire.
Late Enterprise photographer Stanley A. Bauman, whose photographs from the fire remain the best visual account of what occurred that day, said in the days after the fire that he wasn't sure he was even going to go when he got the call because it seemed to be a routine fire.
However, as time progressed, the fire gained headway. The basement fire had made its way up the into the south and west walls of the Strand Theatre. The flames then shot through the roof and outside the southwest corner's wall.
Firefighters stood on the theater's balcony using hoses to try to extinguish the flames inside the walls and ceiling, while others used ceiling hooks to try to pull down the plaster to get at the fire.
Moments later, the steel roof trusses buckled, bringing down parts of the roof, which fell onto the balcony and caused the balcony to collapse. Many firefighters had been standing under the balcony prior to its collapse, causing them to become trapped under the debris.
In all, 13 firefighters were killed, and more than 20 injured when what was termed a routine fire turned into a disaster.
That catastrophic event — which remains one of the deadliest incidents resulting in the loss of firefighter life in U.S. history, according to the National Fire Protection Association — occurred 80 years ago Wednesday.
The Strand fire took the lives of Capt. John F. Carroll, Lt. Raymond A. Mitchell and firefighters George A. Collins, Bartholomew Herlihy, Frederick F. Kelley, Martin Lipper, Matthew E. McGeary, Roy A. McKeraghan, John M. McNeil, Denis P. Murphy, William J. Murphy, Daniel C. O'Brien and Henry E. Sullivan.
Tricia Cruise grew up with the Strand Theatre fire etched in her family's history.
Her grandfather was Capt. John F. Carroll, one of the 13 who died in the fire.
Even though she never knew him, the family memorialized the fire's anniversary each March 10, making it a vivid memory in her mind.
Her father, David W. Carroll, was just 11 years old when his father went to work and didn't come home.
"My grandfather wasn't on duty," Cruise said. "My father went to bed and when he woke up, his dad was gone. He went in as an extra and when he went into the theater, the balcony collapsed."
John Carroll was one of the first firefighters whose bodies was removed from the debris inside the theater, along with William Murphy. Carroll, who was 57 when he died, was a 32-year veteran of the Brockton Fire Department. He was the longest-tenured firefighter who died that day.
"We should always remember these men and women go to work every day to protect us and sometimes they don't come home," Cruise said. "They gave the ultimate sacrifice. The fire affected a lot of people. The pain was held onto for a long time."
About 13 years ago, described at the time as "a long time coming," the fire was officially recognized in Brockton forever with the establishment of the Strand Theatre Firefighters Memorial statue, a bronze-and-granite tribute to the 13 firefighters who lost their lives, outside Brockton City Hall.
This year, retired Fire Chief Kenneth Galligan, who is the president of the Brockton Fire Museum, said the return to Brockton of the original Squad A engine that responded to the Strand Theatre fire is significant for the 80th anniversary.
"Another piece of the puzzle is coming together," Galligan said. "It's almost unbelievable that that truck was still around. That is the truck the crew responded on and returned to to the station with no crew. It has a big significance to the Brockton Fire department. It's not just another old fire engine."
The firefighters who were on Squad A that 1941 day — Denis Murphy, William Murphy, McKeraghan and O'Brien — were four of the 13 who died battling the blaze.
In 1948, the truck was taken out of service and sold at an auction to a farmer in New Hampshire who used it primarily for irrigation. It was sold in 1980 to Bruce Eaton, who owned Tuxbury Pond Campground in Southampton, New Hampshire, and it was stored there for years.
The truck would occasionally be driven in parades, but there was no indication the engine was from Brockton or that it was used to battle the historic Strand Theatre fire.
In 2019, Billerica firefighter Dave Feyler, a collector of antique fire trucks, bought the Squad A truck from the Eaton family and learned, through research, that it was from Brockton.
Feyler worked with Galligan to trace the serial numbers on the truck and confirmed it was the Squad A engine used in the Strand fire.
"I said, 'Don't you ever sell that truck without contacting us,'" Galligan recalls telling Feyler. "He said he had no interest in selling it, but he would always keep us in mind. About a year went by and he called and said he was willing to sell the truck."
Brockton Firefighters Local 144, the city's firefighters union, held an emergency meeting and unanimously voted to purchase the truck. It was returned to the city's custody and a restoration effort is underway.
The truck will be on display Wednesday at the annual Strand Theatre remembrance ceremony at 10 a.m. outside City Hall. Face masks are required and physical distancing will be adhered to due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Galligan, who retired as fire chief in 2010 after 41 years with the Brockton Fire Department, has spent much time in retirement researching the Strand Theatre fire.
But he also spends his time thinking about ways to prevent future loss of life to firefighters and educating younger firefighters on the dangers that became evident as a result of the Strand fire.
Galligan wrote the foreword for "The Strand Theatre Fire: The 1941 Brockton Tragedy and the Fallen Thirteen," a 2017 book by the late James E. Benson, a past president of the Brockton Historical Society and Fire Museum, and Nicole B. Casper, director of archives and special collections at Stonehill College.
The retired fire chief also participated in the "After the Fire" podcast, hosted by Austin, Texas, firefighter Jon Nelson, which looked at the Strand Theatre fire in its first episode.
A big focus for Galligan has been educating firefighters about the dangers of trusses.
"Many firefighters have died across the country because of truss collapses," he said. "Fire departments are becoming very educated about the danger of trusses. A truss is a very strong component of a building, but when one piece of a truss breaks, usually the whole truss will fail. If a fire burns a truss and destroys one component, it can cause a collapse and a roof or a ceiling to come down."
"It's a tragic story for Brockton, but it's become a learning experience for other firefighters," Galligan added.
The cause of the Strand Theatre fire remains undetermined to this day.
"A thorough investigation has been made of all the information developed at the inquest and the evidence has been considered for its value in determining the cause of the fire," then-state Fire Marshal Stephen J. Garrity wrote in his findings report, which was published in The Enterprise at the time. "No evidence of incendiarism was found and no facts developed which indicate the origin from a specific accidental cause. The cause of the fire will therefore be recorded in the department files as of unknown origin."
Every March 10, firefighters from across the region gather in Brockton to remember their 13 brothers who died battling the Strand Theatre fire.
There's generally a prayer, a performance of "Amazing Grace" by Brockton Firefighters Pipes and Drums and a wreath laying at the base of the Strand Theatre Firefighters Memorial.
"It will always be remembered," Galligan said. "I know it will be at least in the Brockton Fire Department. We always remember the people that went before us. Thirteen firefighters really gave their lives in service to this community. Every firefighter and cop goes to work and it could be the last day. You just never know. It's a very dangerous profession. It's a very significant event in the city's history. Will it be forgotten? I don't think so. I really don't."
___
(c)2021 The Enterprise, Brockton, Mass.
Visit The Enterprise, Brockton, Mass. at www.enterprisenews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
