12. The 1944 circus fire in Hartford, Connecticut
By the summer of 1944 Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus was the largest in the world, and its main tent – the Big Top – could hold up to 9,000 spectators. Between six and eight thousand fans were under the canvas tent, which had been treated with paraffin dissolved in gasoline to render it water proof, on the hot afternoon of July 6. Most of the attendees were women and children. The Great Wallendas were performing their aerial acrobatics, consequently most of the crowd were looking up when a fire started, for reasons never discovered. The band followed longstanding circus tradition and immediately began playing The Stars and Stripes Forever, recognizable to circus personnel as a distress signal. It meant nothing to the crowd.
As the Big Top disintegrated in flames panic spread through the crowd, which streamed for the exits, in the dark after the electrical system failed and the lights went out. Most escaped unharmed, other than suffering burns from melted paraffin which fell from the tent’s roof. The tent was completely consumed in less than ten minutes. Some trying to escape found the exits blocked by the enclosed tubes used to move big cats to the show rings from their cages behind the tent. Officially 168 people were killed and over 700 treated for injuries, mostly burns. Eventually the circus paid more than $6 million in damages to victims and their families. One unidentified body of a young girl, never claimed by relatives, became famous as Little Miss 1565, with her picture published in magazines and newspapers across the United States.