Hartford Circus Fire

The Hartford Circus Fire, which occured on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus that was attended by approximately 7,500 people.

Sources and investigators differ on how many people were killed and injured. Various people and organizations say it was 167, 168, or 169 persons -- 168 being the figure most commonly given -- with official treated injury estimates running over 700 people. The number of actual injuries is believed to be higher than those figures, since many people were seen that day heading home in shock without seeking treatment in the city. More than 100 of those killed were under the age of 15. All of the circus animals escaped unharmed.

The cause of the fire remains undetermined. Most investigators believe it was caused by a carelessly flicked cigarette or an arsonist. Because the big top had been coated with 1,800 lb (816 kg) of paraffin and 6,000 US gallons (23 m³) of gasoline, a common waterproofing method of the time, the flames spread rapidly, eventually causing the fiery tent to collapse onto the hundreds of spectators trapped beneath it.

It is commonly believed that the number of fatalities is higher than the estimates given, due to poorly kept residency records in rural towns and the fact that some smaller remains were never identified or claimed. It is also believed that the intense heat from the fire combined with the accelerants in the paraffin and gasoline could have burned people completely as in cremation, leaving no substantial physical evidence behind. Additionally, free tickets had been handed out that day to many people in and around the city, some of whom appeared to eyewitnesses and circus employees to be drifters who would never have been reported missing by anyone if they were killed in the disaster.

Cause of the fatalities

While many people were burned to death by the fire, many others died as a result of the ensuing chaos. Though most spectators were able to escape the fire, many people were caught up in the hysteria and panicked. Witnesses said some people simply ran around in circles trying to find their loved ones rather than trying to escape the burning tent. Others stayed in their seats until it was too late, assuming that the fire would be put out promptly and the show would continue.

Because at least two of the exits were blocked, one by the chutes used to bring the large felines in and out of the tent, people trying to escape could not bypass them. Some died from injuries sustained after leaping from the tops of the bleachers in hopes they could escape under the sides of the tent, though that method of escape ended up saving more people than it killed. Others died after being trampled by other spectators, with some asphyxiating underneath the piles of people who had fallen down over each other.

Most of the dead were found in piles, some three bodies deep, at the most congested exits. A small number of people were found alive at the bottoms of these piles, protected by the bodies that were on top of them when the burning big top ultimately fell down on those still trapped beneath it.

The first investigation

On July 7, charges of involuntary manslaughter were filed against five officials and employees of Ringling Bros. Within days of these charges being filed, the circus reached an agreement with Hartford officials to accept full financial responsibility and pay whatever amount the city requested in damages. This resulted in the circus paying out almost $5,000,000 USD to the 600 victims and families who had filed claims against them by 1954. All circus profits from the time of the fire until then had been set aside to pay these claims off.

Although the circus accepted full responsibility for the financial damages, they did not accept responsibility for the disaster itself. The five men charged were brought to trial in late 1944, and only one was not convicted. Although they were given prison terms, the four men found guilty were allowed to continue with the circus to their next stop, in Sarasota, Florida, to help the company set itself up again after the disaster. Shortly after their convictions, they were pardoned entirely.

Segee's confession

In 1950, a Circleville, Ohio man named Robert D. Segee claimed he was responsible for setting the Hartford Circus Fire. He said he had a nightmare in which an Indian riding on a "flaming horse" told him to set fires. He further claimed that after this nightmare his mind went blank, and that he did not come out of this state until the circus fire had already been set.

In November of 1950, Segee was convicted in Ohio and sentenced to more than 40 years of imprisonment. However, Hartford investigators raised doubts over this man's confession, as he had a history of mental illness and it could not be proved he was anywhere within the state of Connecticut when the fire occurred. Connecticut officials were also not allowed to question Segee, even though his alleged crime had occurred in their state. Because of this, many investigators, historians, and victims believe the true arsonist -- if it was indeed arson -- was never found.

Little Miss 1565 & her true identity

The most well-known victim of the circus fire was a young blonde girl wearing a white dress. She is known only as Little Miss 1565, named after the number assigned to her body at the city's makeshift morgue. Oddly well preserved even after her death in the fire, her face has become arguably the most well-known image of the fire.

Her true identity has been a topic of debate and frustration in the Hartford area since the fire first occurred, as she was never claimed and eventually was buried without a name in a Hartford cemetery.

In 1991, arson investigator Rick Davey (along with co-writer Massachusetts. Davey also contends that there was a conspiracy within the judicial system to convict the Ringling defendants, and that Segee was the arsonist, though many other investigators rule Segee out as being a psychotic with a history of wild, unsubstantiated claims.

These assertions, along with others in A Matter of Degree, have been fiercely disputed by investigators who worked on the case, as well as by other writers, most notably dental records of Eleanor Cook and the records made of Little Miss 1565 after her death.

Due to the many apparent errors in Davey's work, A Matter of Degree is considered by sone to be a work of revisionist history or journalistic sensationalism, with some victims and reviewers accusing Davey of using the book to further his own career and notoriety.

With the questions over whether or not Eleanor Cook is the true identity of Little Miss 1565 still unanswered in the eyes of many, the body was exhumed after the release of A Matter of Degree and buried in Southampton, Massachusetts, next to the body of Edward Cook, the brother of Eleanor Cook and a victim of the circus fire himself. Since then, the Cook family has raised questions over whether or not the body is indeed that of Eleanor Cook, and some investigators have come to believe that Eleanor's body may have been another of the unclaimed bodies from from the fire and not Little Miss 1565.

Hartford and the circus today

While the circus was banned from Hartford and other parts of Connecticut for years after the Hartford fire, it began to make a comeback in the 1970s. Laws passed in Connecticut shortly after the fire made it illegal for big tops to be used, so the Ringling Bros. circus has traditionally been held in the Hartford Civic Center when it visits the city.

While attendance has gotten stronger over the past 3 decades, many people, especially those who were alive when it happened, refuse to attend based on what happened in 1944. Some people believe Ringling Bros. should not be allowed to visit the city altogether, citing what they view as insufficient sympathy and assistance on the part of the company after the disaster. For a time, Ringling Bros. trains passing through Connecticut on their way to other states had police escorts from the time they entered the state until they exited it, but these measures are no longer felt to be needed.

Though many of those present at the fire have not returned to circuses since then, others have gone back. In May of 2004, Dorothy Carvey and her son, Tighe, were given free passes for their family by Ringling Bros. to attend a show at the Hartford Civic Center. For Dorothy Carvey, this was her first time back at a circus since the fire occurred. The story of their visit, as well as what happened to them in 1944, was written about in The Hartford Courant.

In 2002, the Hartford Circus Fire Memorial Foundation was established to erect a permanent memorial to the people killed in the circus fire. Ground was broken for the monument on July 6, 2004, at the site where the fire occured. The H.C.F.M.F. is now working to publish a book containing witness accounts of the fire.