Safety is critical anytime that a large group of people are brought together in a single space. History can be useful reminder that disasters can and do happen. Here is a list of deadliest theatre fires from Wikipedia.
The Brooklyn Theater Fire was a catastrophic theater fire that broke out on the evening of December 5, 1876 in Brooklyn, NY. The conflagration claimed the lives of at least 278 individuals, with some accounts reporting over 300 dead.
The Iroquois Theatre Fire occurred on December 30, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. It is the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history. A total of 602 people died as a result of the fire. An arc light shorted and ignited a muslin curtain.
The Rhoads Opera House, located in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, caught fire on January 13, 1908 during a church-sponsored stage play. The fire started when a kerosene lamp was knocked over. 171 people perished when the exit was crowded against to escape the fire.
The Laurier Palace Theatre fire was a small fire that occurred in a movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on January 9, 1927. The fire--reportedly caused by a discarded cigarette smoldering beneath wooden floorboards--started in early afternoon during a comedy. 78 persons died in the ensuing mayhem.
The Glen Cinema Disaster of 31 December, 1929 in Paisley, Scotland, killed 69 children and injured 40. On that afternoon, during a children's matinee, a freshly shown film was put in its metal box, in the spool room, where it began to issue thick black smoke. Soon the smoke filled the auditorium containing about one thousand children. Panic set in.
On August 20, 1978, in Abadan, Iran the Cinema Rex theatre was set ablaze, killing over 400 individuals. The ruling shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, said that Islamic militants set the fire, while many blamed the country's intelligence service, SAVAK for setting the fire.
The 1994 Karamay Friendship Theatre fire, considered one of the worst civilian fires in the history of the People's Republic of China, occurred on December 8, 1994. A fire broke out in a theatre hosting 1,000 children and teachers. The fire resulted in 325 deaths with 288 of them being school children.
The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, occurred on Friday, June 13, 1997 in Green Park, Delhi. 59 people died and 103 were seriously injured in the subsequent stampede; most of the victims were trapped on the balcony.
The Beni Suef Cultural Palace fire occurred in Beni Suef, Egypt, on September 5, 2005 and killed 46 people. The Cultural Palace was overcrowded at the occasion of the Amateur Theatre Festival when a burning candle lit paper décor on the stage and started a conflagration.
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