November 28, 2022, marks the 80th Anniversary of one of the deadliest fires in American history. On that fateful night in 1942, nearly five hundred patrons of Boston’s premiere nightclub perished in a smoke-filled conflagration. As the city’s services were quickly overwhelmed, calls went out far and wide to surrounding communities, hospitals and military installations. To offer some perspective as to the scope of the death toll, the 492 who perished represented more than ten percent of Wilmington’s then population. An even greater appreciation of the magnitude of the disaster came about, when it was realized the number of fatalities connected to the town.
In November of 1942, the nation was in the midst of a devastating war against global tyranny. Not even a year removed from Pearl Harbor, the country reeled daily from news of wartime fatalities. Wilmington itself had suffered four such casualties since February of that year. William Butterworth had perished in the sinking of the destroyer USS Truxtun during a North Atlantic storm. In September, Charles Smith and John Edwinson both US Marines, died in separate battles on Guadalcanal. Two weeks before the fire at the Cocoanut Grove, Wesley Coburn was lost at sea when the destroyer USS Walke was sunk in a battle with Japanese warships. Still, the town was resilient and went on with life at home. Many of Wilmington’s sons and daughters answered the call for service and many that remained at home did likewise. In 1942 Wilmington Police and Fire Departments and their auxiliary forces trained along with the town’s air raid wardens to protect the home front from attack and invasion.
On November 28, 1942, several residents of Wilmington and their companions sought to make a celebratory night amongst the chaos that the previous eleven months of war had inflicted. The Fitzgerald Family gathered a large party of friends and their dates to welcome home on leave from Army Air Forces training, their brother, Henry. Similarly, their soldier neighbor John Quinlan of Burnap Street stepped out separately on leave that night as well. Their destination, the Cocoanut Grove in Boston’s nightclub district.
The Cocoanut Grove was the most popular nightspot in the city of Boston. Once owned by Prohibition-era racketeer, Charles “King” Solomon, it was a multi-level, city block long amalgamation of bars, cocktail lounges, full-service kitchen, dining areas, orchestra stage and dance floor. It featured a retractable roof for dancing under the stars and it had entrances on three different city streets (Piedmont, Shawmut and Broadway). That fateful night more than 1000 patrons were packed inside. The Fitzgerald Party numbered twelve, Henry and his three brothers (John, James and Wilfred), Mary Kelly, a teacher from Lowell and her friend, Mildred Rogers, the principal of the Silver Lake School. Also in their party was Henry’s friend from basic training Private Robert Horrigan of Turners Falls, Mass. Other members of their entourage were George Lowe, Harry Connick and three unidentified girls from Boston. Technician 5th Grade (Corporal) John Quinlan was assigned to HQ Company VI Corps and was on leave with several other soldiers from Fort Devens.
The Thanksgiving weekend crowd reveled in the South Seas themed club that evening until approximately 10:15 PM when fire was spotted in the basement level Melody Lounge. The conflagration quickly spread across the walls and ceilings as the tropical island décor burst into flames. Thick, acrid smoke soon filled the entire club and lighting failed as patrons fought through the darkness only to find congested stairways, dead ends and locked doors. Victims fell to the floors trampled, suffocated, burned and buried in debris.
Boston Fire Department crews responded within minutes of the fire being reported but soon found themselves overwhelmed with a monumental rescue effort. In less than an hour five alarms had been struck and city officials put out desperate calls for any available ambulances to respond. The Boston Navy Yard mobilized every man at their disposal. All available personnel from nearby Army, Navy, Marine and Coast Guard installations responded. An hour after the fire began the Wilmington Police Department answered the urgent call for their ambulance. The Wilmington Police Department had begun its ambulance service in 1934 operating a used Lincoln sedan heavily modified to serve as such. However, by 1941, they had in service a brand-new Cadillac ambulance featuring all of the modern life saving equipment then available.
At 11:30 PM, Deputy Chief Francis Hoban and Officer George Fuller manned the ambulance and departed for the Cocoanut Grove. Unbeknownst to either, they were about to come face to face with a horrific scene of contorted and burned bodies. Almost immediately upon their arrival Hoban and Fuller began assisting in the rescue effort, eventually transporting victims to Cambridge City Hospital. Others from Wilmington, like Air Raid Warden James Gilligan and Coast Guardsman James Goodwin, also responded to the call for help. Goodwin was later hospitalized after he sustained injuries while engaged in the rescue effort and it was James Gilligan that initially identified one of the Fitzgerald Brothers (James) as a fatality. The ambulance later returned to Wilmington in the early morning hours of November 29th. Also, in those early morning hours, Chief Harry Ainsworth and Sergeant Talbot Sidelinker delivered notification to Mrs. Mary Fitzgerald of Fitz Terrace that James was amongst the deceased at Cambridge City Hospital. They would have to repeat this notification three more times as it was gradually discovered that all the brothers had perished. Similarly, notification was made to the Quinlan Family that John had also been killed. The town was then further devastated upon learning of the loss of their beloved teacher and principal of the Silver Lake School, Mildred Rogers. In the end, Henry Fitzgerald’s friend, Robert Horrigan was the only survivor of their party.
Of the 492 victims, fifty-two (including Private Fitzgerald and Corporal Quinlan) were service personnel on leave. Another thirty-five service members were hospitalized with injuries. Both men were later laid to rest with military honors, Henry Fitzgerald with his brothers at Wildwood Cemetery and John Quinlan at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden. The Silver Lake School was later renamed the Mildred Rogers School. In an ironic ending, the school was destroyed by fire in the 1980s.
In the aftermath of the Cocoanut Grove Fire, news later reached home that also on November 28, 1942, thousands of miles away, Wilmington’s Private James Wesley Sudsbury was lost at sea when the cargo ship USS Alchiba was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off of the island of Guadalcanal.
The Fitzgerald Brothers were laid to rest together at Wildwood Cemetery on December 2, 1942. Chief Harry Ainsworth and his officers were amongst the hundreds of mourners in attendance.