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 On
the afternoon of July 6, 1944--just one month after
D-Day--more than 8000 Hartford residents, most of them
women and children, scrambled to their seats beneath the
Ringling Brothers big top for an afternoon at the
circus. As the audience waited for "the
greatest show on earth" to begin, no one had any
reason to suspect that the most destructive force in
nature was bearing down on them, granting them only
minutes to live.
Shortly
after the matinee began, a ball of flame broke out high on
the sidewall canvas. As shock turned to horror,
thousands of panic-stricken people began a desperate
stampede to escape the flames that flowed like a breeze across the tent top, a square mile of canvas that had been
waterproofed with a pasty mixture of 1800 pounds of
paraffin wax and 6000 gallons of gasoline. Hundreds
swarmed the exits in a frenzy, but their path to safety
was blocked by iron cage chutes filled with snarling lions
and clawing panthers. Engulfed
by thunderous flame, the big top collapsed with a
deafening roar, dooming those still alive inside. in
less than ten minutes, America's most horrific tragedy had
claimed 168 lives and destroyed the Ringling circus,
leaving a trail of deadly secrets in the smoldering
rubble. The
truth would remain hidden for 50 years.
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