The Circus Fire Read Online Free PDF

were lined with trees, and beyond the trees at the back, a dirt road rose over a gentle hillock and connected with Hampton Street, a square block empty save a plot of shade tobacco and the barracks and spotlights of an army antiaircraft unit.

    From past years he knew where the tops were supposed to go, and he knew there wouldn't be room for the menagerie tent. It was just as well— they'd been late several stands, so short-handed, and anything that cut their set-up time was welcome.
    Officially they had the lot from this evening till the morning of the 7th. The show's contracting agent had made the arrangements back in February, supplying the city with the circus's standard lease form and dropping off thirty or so passes with the superintendent of buildings. The rent was $500, to be paid by draft at the money wagon the day of the show. It was the standard deal.
And everything here on Barbour Street seemed fine to the twenty-four-hour man, business as usual. The advance men had done a good job of getting their bills up. Every mom-and-pop Italian grocery and barbershop and package store in the North End had a lithograph picturing the Panto's Paradise spec in its front window, the owners happy to have free passes in exchange for displaying the posters. The lot was in good shape. The weather was clear and expected to stay that way.
In Providence they were having Christmas dinner. Not the twenty-four-hour man; he had to order ice and fish and fresh bread, eggs and bacon and milk. It would be a long, hot day. When he left, the mowers were still working.

    The show had hired John Sponzo to cut the grass and cover the sidewalk on the east side of Barbour Street with dirt so the trucks and wagons wouldn't break it up. Sponzo owned a brick company on Main and a fair amount of land by the corner of Cleveland and Hampton Streets, a section of which the circus would use for their horse top and cookhouse. Later he testified that he and one of his men were on the lot the 3rd and the 4th.
    They had a pair of horses and a mowing machine and a one-horse rake. They had some trouble with cans and wire fouling their blades. Where the tent was, he said, the soil was sandy and the grass didn't grow much. They cut the lot and raked the grass, saving half for bedding and half to feed the horses.
Was enough dry grass left, in his opinion, to start a fire?
"I would say no," John Sponzo said, "because we did a fairly good job of it."

Principals
The Cook party, Mr. Frank Golloto
Southampton, Mass. Donald Gale, 10
Mrs. Mildred Cook Caroline Brown, 8
Donald Cook, 9
Eleanor Cook, 8 The Smith party,
Edward Cook, 6 Vernon, Conn.
Mrs. Grace Smith
The Norris/Smith party, Joan Smith, 12
Middletown, Conn. Elliott Smith, 7
Mr. Michael and Mrs. Eva Norris
Agnes Norris, 6 The Epps/Goff party
    Judy Norris, 6 Hartford, Conn.
Mrs. Mae Smith Mrs. Mabel Epps (pregnant)
Barbara Smith, 12 William Epps, 7
Mary Kay Smith, 6 Richard Epps, 3
Mrs. Maurice Goff
The Kurneta / Erickson party, Muriel Goff, 4
Middletown, Conn.
Mrs. Frances Kurneta The Bocek/ Marcovicz party,
Mr. Stanley Kurneta Hartford, Conn.
Miss Mary Kurneta Stella Marcovicz
Betsy Kurneta, 10 Francis Marcovicz, 4
Tony Kurneta Dorothy Bocek, 13
Raymond Erickson Jr., 6
The LeVasseur party,
The Gale/Grant party, Bristol, Conn.
East Hartford, Conn. Marion LeVasseur
Mrs. Hulda Grant Jerry LeVasseur, 6

    July 5,1944

They were late out of Providence and blew the matinee. They'd been late all season—in Bridgeport and Fitchburg and Manchester—but this was the first show they'd blown.
They blamed the trains. According to the front-page story in the Hartford Times: "There was a divergence of opinion between circus and railroad officials as to what occasioned the delay. A spokesman for the show said the 72-foot flatcars needed to transport the main tent were 'unable to negotiate sharp curves in the railroad' between Hartford and Willimantic. Railroad dispatchers (with the New York, New Haven & Hartford) said the