On the night of December 5, 1876, 900 Brooklyn residents settled in their seats for a lovely winter night’s entertainment. The Brooklyn Theater located on Johnson and Washington Streets was one of Brooklyn’s largest and newest venues. It had opened its doors in 1871 to great acclaim. As all new buildings were at the time, it had gas lamps for lighting.
During a performance of the play Two Orphans, a fire started when a gas light fixture fell on scenery back stage. Stagehands attempted to put the fire out with no success. As small pieces of burning scenery fell onto the stage, the actors continued performing convincing the audience that the burning pieces were part of the play. But when large pieces of scenery began to fall someone yelled “Fire!” and panic ensued. Within ten minutes, people from the balconies had clogged the staircases and people were trampled upon as everyone rushed to get out of the burning theater. As the smoke and flames consumed the theater many died of smoke inhalation or were burned beyond recognition.
Harry Murdock was one of the star’s of the show an initially he calmed the audience from the stage. But with the cry of “Fire,” he ran to his dressing room in an attempt to escape. Unfortunately, the backstage was an inferno and the floor collapsed sending him into the basement killing him.
The fire burned through most of the night. The intensity of the flames and smoke prevented firefighters from getting inside to help victims leading to massive casualties. When the fire finally died out at about 3 a.m. on December 6 almost 300 Brooklynites were dead. It was quickly dubbed “Brooklyn’s Holocaust” by the press. As New York papers would do in another awful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the names of the victims were printed since many were burned beyond recognition.
Later in December at the inquest into the cause of the fire both the stage manager, James Thorpe and the theater’s business manager, Lorraine Rogers testified that the theater had enough water buckets and ushers to aid the audience in case of a fire. Both agreed that once panic set in there was little that could be done to save the victims.
Since the fire occurred so close to Christmas, a relief fund was established for the victim’s families headed by Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. Money was also raised thorough charity performances at other Brooklyn theaters. Incredibly, some of those theaters, were cited by the City of Brooklyn for overcrowding.
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