Image source: Exeter Memories
When I read Matthias 2nd birthday letter, it focuses on a report from the fire Matthias started at his parents’ theatre. I won’t spoil the letter but while I read the letter, it reminded me of an actual real life incident that took place during a similar time.
Have you guys ever heard of the Exeter Theatre Royal fire? It was a fire that broke out in a theatre in Exeter, England on September 5th, 1887.
Basically, the Theatre Royal was originally built around the mid-1830s or even as early as the 1820s. Yet, even before that it served to be a replacement for a theatre that burned down in 1787.
Regardless, the original Theatre Royal itself would burn down in 1885. It would soon be built up and opened up again in 1886 after being designed by a well-known theatre architect C.J. Phipps (remember this name).
Well, the fire I want to talk about, the 1887 one, broke out at night around 10:20 p.m. and the source was a gauze curtain catching fire due to a nearby gas jet used for stage lighting backstage.
The fire quickly spread through the scenery and props backstage and while there was a theatre fireman present with a hose, it was to no avail. The smoke and flame swept through the theatre and panicked audience goers fled for the exits.
However, depending on where they were sitting, their escape would either be easy to accomplish or obstructed by locked exits, crowd crush, and lack of knowledge on proper exits. There was one particular escape route people thought was an exit thanks to the architect’s suggestion which was to climb the railing of the upper circle of the gallery, but no one is thought to have survived that way.
While the fire brigade was able to come rather quickly to help quell the fire along with a few volunteer rescuers because for the fire fighters of the time, the fire was quite beyond their capability, the loss of life was tremendous.
The Theatre Royal the day after the fire. The crowd surrounding the theatre is most likely there to identify the bodies of the victims since the stable they were in was on the opposite side of the theatre. (Source: Exeter Memories)
186 people lost their lives out of the 700-800 people who had went to the theatre that night. Due to this, to this day the Exeter Theatre Royal fire remains the worst theatre disaster, the worst-single building fire, and the third worst fire-related disaster in UK history.
While the official verdict for the disaster was “accidental death,” the licensing magistrates who allowed such dangerous designs (i.e. lack of theatre exits, unsafe conditions) to go through and the architect, C.J. Phipps were severely criticized for their part in the disaster.
“Phipps was also heavily criticised for misleading the magistrates in relation to the lack of a second exit, by suggesting that dropping over the edge of the balcony was a suitable second exit…
Phipps was further criticised for the design, including the roof over the gallery being too low, meaning that people had little chance to escape before smoke overcame them.”
Though Phipps would defend himself by saying, “…that a number of changes had been made during construction from the designs that he proposed.” (Wikipedia)
Regardless, no one was ever charged for the incident.
A rather fun fact about Phipps is that he actually died on May 25th, 1897 so he shares his death day with Matthias’ birthday. I thought that was a rather neat coincidence.
Source: Wikipedia
Granted, I have no idea if this real life fire partially inspired Matthias’ backstory or not but I just happened to think of the Exeter fire while reading his latest birthday letter.
When you do read his 2nd birthday letter, perhaps you will also see what I mean when I make these parallels.
Another theatre disaster that is also similar to the Exeter one, though more closely fits Matthias’ story is the Theatre Royal (a different theatre) in Glasglow that happened back in 1849.
This one is more similar to Matthias’ by the fact that it was the subsequent crowd crush caused by panic over a fire that was quickly extinguished that led to a loss of life. This time it was around 70 people.
History lesson over. Hope everyone learned something today! And once again, Happy Birthday to Matthias…even if it’s not really a very happy one…
