page_title: Iroquois Theatre fire
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Iroquois Theatre fire / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: In the aftermath of the 1904 Iroquois Theatre fire, members of the Chicago Police Department guard the bodies of some of the victims.
context_page_description: The Iroquois Theatre fire happened on December 30, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. It was the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history, resulting in at least 602 deaths.
context_section_description: Mass panic ensued and, attempting their own escape from the burning building; many of those trapped inside tried climbing over piles of bodies. Corpses were stacked 10 feet high around some of the blocked exits. The victims were asphyxiated by the fire, smoke, and gases, or were crushed to death by the onrush of other terrified theater patrons behind them. It is estimated that 575 people were killed on the day of the fire; at least 30 more died of injuries over the following weeks. (The Great Chicago Fire, by comparison, killed about 300 people.) Many of the Iroquois fire victims were buried in Montrose, Calvary, Saint Boniface, Mount Greenwood, Mount Hope, Mount Olivet, Oak Woods, Rosehill, Graceland, Forest Home, and Waldheim Jewish Cemetery.
  Of the 300 or so actors, dancers, and stagehands, only five people died: the aerialist (Nellie Reed), an actor in a bit part, an usher, and two female attendants. The aerialist's role was to fly out as a fairy over the audience on a trolley wire, showering them with pink carnations. She was trapped above the stage while waiting for her entrance; during the fire she fell, was gravely injured, and died of burns and internal injuries three days later.
  In New York City on New Year's Eve some theaters eliminated standing room. Building and fire codes were subsequently reformed; theaters were closed for retrofitting all around the country and in some cities in Europe. All theater exits had to be clearly marked and the doors configured so that, even if they could not be pulled open from the outside, they could be pushed open from the inside.
  After the fire, it was alleged that fire inspectors had been bribed with free tickets to overlook code violations.  The mayor ordered all theaters in Chicago closed for six weeks after the fire.
  As a result of public outrage, many were charged with crimes, including Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr. Most charges were dismissed three years later, because of the delaying tactics of the owners' lawyers and their use of loopholes and inadequacies in the city's building and safety ordinances. Levy Mayer was the defender of the theater and its manager, Will Davis.
  The exterior of the Iroquois was largely intact. The building later reopened as the Colonial Theater, which was demolished in 1925 to make way for the Oriental Theater.
caption: Police officers guarding the bodies of victims.
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