The country's second largest building fire left 492 dead, but it also spurred a host of new fire and building regulations, starting with revolving doors. Because many of the other doors were locked, nightclub patrons stampeded through the revolving doors causing a jam. Now revolving doors must be flanked on either side by regular doors.
Cocoanut Grove also led to advances in the treatment of burns and smoke inhalation. Because burn victims were injected with blood plasma, the fire also spurred the creation of blood banks, and the mass production of penicillin. The reactions of the fire's survivors was studied by a psychiatrist at Mass General Hospital, so the fire also contributed to our understanding of grief and trauma and the fields of psychiatry and psychology,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Lund and Browder chart was first published in 1944 and was based on experience treating victims of the Cocoanut Grove fire.
