Survivors and family members of victims joined local officials and historians yesterday as the city commemorated the 75th anniversary of the deadly Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire, which killed nearly 500 people and led to sweeping changes to U.S. building and fire codes.
Marshall Cole, who was a 16-year-old tap dancer when the popular nightspot went up in flames, told those gathered that the tragic events of Nov. 28, 1942, are never far from his mind.
“From there on out, whenever I go to a place, I look for an exit,” Cole, 91, told the hundreds gathered at the Revere Hotel Boston Common, which sits in part on the same stretch of Stuart Street where the Cocoanut Grove once stood. “The aftermath and investigation that followed have transformed the fire conventions and building code all across the world,” Boston Fire Department Commissioner Joseph E. Finn said. “Let’s not forget the lessons learned from this horrific tragedy.”