Scanned photos by kind courtesy of D. C. Hillier, a documentary film maker. He has been researching the Blue Bird Cafe fire of September 1972 in which 37 Montrealers were killed. They are from "Le Memorial de Québec Edition 1966-76" which was published in 1979 by the National Library of Québec (the book is from a encyclopedia of Quebec history).
September 1, 1972 (not 1971). Coincided with the start of the Canada-USSR hockey series.
ReplyDeleteTrue and that's one reason it didn't get as much media coverage as it deserved, it was - like so much else - eclipsed by hockey.
ReplyDeleteI once met someone who was in the club at the time and managed to escape.
ReplyDeleteThe fire was started by two men as an act of revenge for being booted out of the club earlier that night.
They fled the city but were eventually arrested in B.C., convicted and jailed, although I believe they were released sometime in the 80s. Can someone verify this?
As horrific as this tragedy was, it still pales in comparison to the Laurier-Palace theatre fire of Jan. 9, 1927 where 78 children perished.
See Wikipedia for the basic story and, of course, check the Google newspaper archives beginning Jan. 10, 1927 for further details.
Yeah, I know the story well and have written about it many times, there is a good facebook page done by the families of the survivors. It is worth checking out.
ReplyDeleteBy an uncanny coincidence the Laurier-Palace tragedy was repeated in an almost identical occurrence at Paisley, Scotland when 71 children died in a similar fire on December 31, 1929.
ReplyDeleteSee:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8435104.stm
I saw a documentary about this fire on Tv a few years ago. I went looking for info online about the tragedy and was surprised at how little there was. Most of what I found at the time was related to the documentary.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know several lifelong Montrealers who were adults at the time of the fire but none of them remember it.
I would be interested to know where the arsonists are now.
One arsonist's life :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalnews.ca/story.html?id=3658370
I knew someone who dropped off his fiance and two other in the wedding party while he went back home to get something he had forgotten. All 3 died in the fire.
ReplyDeleteMOHO