Brooklyn Theatre fire
1876 CE.
Shown on the map at 40.695°, -73.990°.
The Brooklyn Theatre fire was a catastrophic theatre fire that broke out on the evening of December 5, 1876, in the city of Brooklyn (now a borough of New York City). The fire took place at the Brooklyn Theatre, near the corner of Washington and Johnson streets, with over 1,000 guests attending. The conflagration killed at least 278 individuals, with some accounts reporting more than 300 dead. 103 unidentified victims were interred in a common grave at Green-Wood Cemetery, marked by an obelisk, while more than two dozen identified victims were interred individually in separate sections at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Theatre fire ranks third in fatalities among fires occurring in theatres and other public assembly buildings in the United States, behind the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire and the 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire. Most deaths occurred in the family circle, the uppermost level of the theatre where the cheapest seats were located. This gallery was quickly exposed to intense heat and thick, suffocating smoke. With only a single stairway for exit, congestion blocked escape, trapping more than half of those inside.
Text from the Wikipedia article Brooklyn Theatre fire, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.