VIDEO: 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.