Mike Corrigan was near the front of the firehouse when he heard tapping on the windowpane.  Outside was a man gesturing toward the south, steam coming from his mouth as he spoke in the freezing temperatures.  It was John McCloskey, carpenter stagehand at the nearby Iroquois Theater, sent by Iroquois fireman Sallers.  Corrigan let John inside and got enough of his story to shout out, "The Iroquois is on fire!"

Four of the firefighters on hand at Engine Company 13 knew instantly that fire at the Iroquois meant big trouble.  Corrigan, captain Jennings and John Campion had all had discussions with personnel at the Iroquois Theater about it being inadequately equipped.  Jennings had also talked about it with battalion chief John Hannan.

Engine 13 was first to reach the Iroquois.  During the engine's mad dash to the scene, Corrigan drove chief Hannan's buggy — with a stop at firebox #26 in front of the Sherman House Hotel to sound the First Alarm.

Newspaper reports about the early alarms for the Iroquois Theater fire were conflicting.   By all accounts, the first still alarm arrived at 3:30 and the official First Alarm, from fire box #26 in front of the Sherman House Hotel a half-block from the Iroquois Theater, sounded at 3:33.  What I have not yet ascertained to my satisfaction is where the first still alarm came from.  Was it delivered to Engine Company 13 by McCloskey or telephoned in from a cigar store in the Real Estate building next to the Iroquois?  Wherever it came from, it ended up in room 607 in City Hall, the department service center.

Business manager Thomas Noonan sent a ticket clerk, Fred Brackenbush, to secure the Iroquois cash receipts at the Best and Russell cigar store, and there was court testimony about a call made from the cigar store, but it was not stated exactly who made the call or the exact time.  Perhaps there were dozens of still alarms but newspapers only reported those mentioned during trial testimony, i.e., the one from McCloskey who ran to Engine House 13, and the one from the cigar store at the corner of Randolph and Dearborn in the Real Estate building (today known as the Delaware building).

According to court testimony, 1st assistant fire marshal John Campion, whose office was at Engine Company 13, did not wait for a horse or buggy.  Campion had gone through the theater with business manager, Thomas Noonan, and reminded him of the need to better equip the theater for fire fighting. When Campion heard the Iroquois was on fire, he ran out the door of the fire house, down Dearborn street, past the west side of the Iroquois, noting there was smoke pouring from the roof.  He was the first fireman to enter the front hall of the theater.  He reported there was enough heat that he felt certain the fire had been going for longer than the three minutes that elapsed between the first still alarm and the First Alarm.  If Campion was right, and he certainly had the experience chops to support his judgment, the delay was while the stage workers tried to put out the fire and McCloskey ran to the fire department.

In the fire department center in room 607 in City Hall, incoming alarms were translated and sent out to fire houses as a "still alarm" (verbal report received), followed a minute later by a "First Alarm" (fire officially confirmed), and nine minutes later a "4-11 alarm" (four-alarm).

Ten minutes later, a fire ball hurled out into the auditorium and melted watch works, fixing the time of death for many at 3:50 pm.  The five minutes or so lost before the still alarms would have given more people time to exit the auditorium.  The death count on the stairwells might have been higher but the total number of fatalities would certainly have been reduced.

No fire alarm at the Iroquois

According to testimony by numerous Iroquois employees, there were no fire alarms inside the Iroquois Theater.  Business manager Thomas Noonan testified that during the weeks leading up to the fire he and Campion, as well as representatives of the building department, discussed installing fire alarms at both the Illinois and the Iroquois.  One of many tasks to be done later.

According to Noonan, and verified by the municipal electrical department, as of December 30, 1903, alarm-installation applications were not submitted.

Cigar store from which came a phoned in alarm was a half block from Iroquois

Where to go?  Was there a telephone at the Iroquois?

Since McCloskey could not pull an alarm within the Iroquois, where was he to go to alert the fire department?  By some reports there was a telephone in business manager Noonan's office on the second floor at the Iroquois Theater but there was nothing reported about Noonan calling the department.

If there was a phone in the business office, did stage workers know about it?  McCloskey knew about the fire a few minutes before Noonan so his decision to run two blocks to Engine House 13 is interesting.  Perhaps he recognized it would be impossible to get through the crowd in the front hall at the theater and that to reach the managers office he would have to run half a block from the stage exit to the corner of Randolph and Dearborn, another half block to the entrance of the theater, force his way through the crowd emerging from the entrance, run up the utility stairwell and hope the manager had not left the building and locked his office.  Running two blocks down Dearborn likely did not take much more time and was more certain.  Did McCloskey figure out all that in advance or did he first try to make it to the phone in the business manager's office?  Might that have accounted for some of the delay before the fire department received the still alarm?

Maybe McCloskey walked?

Fireman Corrigan would testify that when McCloskey arrived at Engine House 13 he did not seem particularly excited.  If he fought his way through the terrified crowd in the front hall of the theater before heading to the fire house, surely he would have been caught up in the excitement and his adrenalin would have been pumping.  If, instead, he left the theater at the beginning of the fire, he may have viewed his action as an errand rather than as an act of life saving.  I initially imagined him running down Dearborn as though chased by the hounds of hell but his deportment upon arrival at the fire house doesn't support that scenario.  He wasn't a fire fighter so perhaps did not appreciate the severity of the situation.  He was sent on the errand by Sallers, a former fireman who doubled as a doorkeeper.  McCloskey might not have had sufficient regard for Sallers judgment.  All that said, McCloskey had worked in theaters for twenty years during an era when theater fires were mud common.  Or maybe Corrigan just didn't read McCloskey accurately.  McCloskey returned to the theater and helped rescue performers.

Michael J. Corrigan Thirty year old Michael J. Corrigan (1873–1966 ) was one of nine children born to Irish immigrants, Peter and Margaret Corrigan. Mike was born while his parents lived in Cleveland, Ohio. The family moved to Chicago around 1882.  In 1910, as captain of engine company 104, Corrigan served as a pallbearer for Fire Chief Horan, a victim of the stock yards fire.  By 1918 Corrigan was a battalion chief of the 25th and by 1922 battalion chief of the 1st.  Michael would go on to serve as the fire commissioner for eighteen of his last sixty-seven years with the department. He continued to participate in annual Iroquois Theater memorial services for many decades after the fire, pulling the alarm on Fire Box #26. Various online sites report that Corrigan was a rookie in 1903; others that he was a ten-year veteran of the department.  According to the 1900 US Census, he had been a fire fighter for at least three years in 1903 and, according to his obituary, he began his career in 1899.  At an annual gathering of the Iroquois Memorial Association in 1934 Corrigan delivered a victim-blaming description of his experience upon arriving at the Iroquois, much of which conflicted with reports thirty years earlier from dozens of survivors and other first responders.  For example, though Corrigan portrays the victims as ninnies who stood burning though there was little threat of fire on the fire escapes, survivors in 1903-4 described being sprayed with hoses as they descended fire escape stairs — to put out their burning hair and clothing.  There were no reports of hoses being hauled up the fire escape steps until after the fireball, when people were no longer coming down the stairs.  He makes no mention of fire escape doors that themselves became obstacles to descent because they could not open widely enough to lay against the wall and permit people to pass.  The alternative was climbing out onto the metal railings inching hand-over-hand while dangling thirty to sixty feet from the ground.  Some victims were able to do so; others could not because they lacked the physical capacity or refused to leave their children and relatives behind and in danger. "I saw the actors coming out of the stage entrance when we pulled up in the alley. Persons were crowded into the fire escape landings leading from the balcony and the gallery. Fire was coming out of the balcony exit. It was not enough flame to make it dangerous to pass through, but they were afraid. Those above on the crowded gallery escape landing would not come down. Some of them were jumping to the alley below. b>Two of us started up with a hose. We begged them to come down. They refused. We had to use force. We grabbed some of them and threw them down the stairs, which were four feet wide. After that, they came down voluntarily, and in good shape. On the lower balcony landing, on the fire escape where I was, the doors were closed. Persons were wedged so tightly against them that we could not budge them more than one foot. We went up to the top landing, leading from the gallery. We had to dig in to get them out. If they had come down the fire escape many more inside could have gotten out. But they stood there, afraid, piling on top of each other, so that those inside were trapped. After clearing the top landing we got to those inside. There they were, toppled over like sardines in a can. Some of them were still screaming when we began carrying them down.. In all, we carried down about 50 persons. How many lived I do not know." Captain Patrick J. Jennings Jr Captain Jennings (1850–1931) went through the theater a week after it opened and was shown around by Iroquois fireman Sallers. Jennings told Sallers, "If this thing start s going, they will lynch you." Sallers told him it wasn't his (Sallers') business. Jennings reported conditions to battalion chief, John Hannan, who said, "Well, what can we do about it?" The son of Irish immigrants, Margaret Giblin and Patrick A. Jennings, Paddy married Elizabeth Robinson in 1874 and was hired as a pipeman in 1880 by Fire Chief Swenie.  He and Elizabeth had eight children over the next twenty-three years, of which five survived to adulthood.   He lost Elizabeth in May, 1903, seven months before the Iroquois Theater fire.  Jennings retired from the department in 1909. Battalion Chief John James Hannon/a> Hannan was shown through the Iroquois by Sallers shortly before the fire and knew that fire fighting equipment was inadequate. He asked Sallers if he had reported it and Sallers said no, that it would be resented by his superiors. Hannan said he did not report his findings to Chief Musham because he had not been instructed to make such reports.  Like Musham, Hannan thought the building department was the only entity with authority to close a firetrap.  Hannon became assistant fire marshal in 1905 and retired in 1908.  Born in 1851, he was married to a Wisconsin girl, Sarah MacIntyre, and they had five or six children, of which four, aged thirteen to twenty-one, were living in 1903.

Alarm boxes in 1903/p>

Boxes in the early 1900s were connected to a telegraph system. When triggered, a wheel tapped out a signal that was sent to a receiver, identifying the number of the sending box.

The top-most illustration shows fire alarm box construction, on a Smith-brand box. The illustration at bottom is a Gamewell, such as dominated the market by a large margin by 1910.

Discrepancies and addendum

Did McCloskey travel directly from the Iroquois stage to Engine House 13? (I don't anticipate ever getting this answer.)

Would Engine 6 have been summoned in the First Alarm?

irqfiremen

Story 2688