Cocoanut Grove
The Cocoanut Grove was the name of a night club in Boston, Massachusetts owned by mafioso Barney Welanskey. The club caught on fire, November 28, 1942, killing between 481 and 492 people.That evening, the club had 1,000 occupants, many of whom were about to go on military duty. The nightclub was not designed to hold that that amount of people. The club was littered with flammable palm trees and other decorations that hid exit signs. Some of the doors were welded shut to prevent people from leaving without paying their dues.
Accounts vary, but many people agree that a busboy was using a lit match to help him see what he was doing when he changed a lightbulb. The ceiling caught fire at about 10:15 PM. It took 15 minutes for the fire to envelop the nightclub. It was the worst night club fire in US history.
Movie star Buck Jones made it safely outside, but was killed when he went back inside to help others.
Welanskey was eventually imprisoned because of the tragedy.