The fire was always “there”, in my mind. I probably didn’t think of it too much as I grew up, but just three years later, I joined the junior firefighter program in my hometown. I knew instantly what I would do for a career. I was going to be a professional firefighter. I achieved that goal at just nineteen, starting in my hometown, Brunswick, Maine, then, after taking a battery of tests, joined the largest fire department in the State of Maine in 1986, the City of Portland.
Still, the Beverly Hills fire was in my mind, along with several other “infamous” fires that are the cornerstone of fire service education. These are situations from the past that all American firefighters study and remember. They are examples of what went right, and more importantly, what went wrong. Later in my career, on my days off, I began college, with a U.S. History degree my goal.
Throughout college, the fire service was my background. I wrote papers of my own experiences and of those world-changing fires in history: The Cocoanut Grove in Boston, Massachusetts in 1942, the Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta, Georgia in 1947, along with countless others… including the Beverly Hills Supper Club in 1977. In the fall semester during 2006, I was taking a sociology course, and our instructor was wide-open to any subject we wanted to write about, so I compared and contrasted the Cocoanut Grove and the Beverly Hills fires (and earned an “A”).
It was during one class that I realized the 30th anniversary of the BHSC fire was the following spring, 2007, and I determined that very day I would be there, in Kentucky, and would climb “The Hill” and see the location for myself, whether anyone was there or I was all alone.
I got onto the internet and connected with several people who were survivors, made a few friends online, and told them my intentions to be in Northern Kentucky the weekend of the anniversary, and was told of the observance that would be held at the base of the hill on the 28th. I had spoken with Dave Brock a few times on the phone before I flew out, and we had become fast friends.
On arrival, I was greeted and taken in like I was an old friend. A curious thing was apparent right from the start: I think that the people in the area of Northern Kentucky, and the survivors in particular, aren’t aware that the BHSC fire is known nationally, and studied to this day by American firefighters. I was accepted by everyone, and they were so grateful I had flown in from Maine to be with them. After many people had spoken at the memorial, Dave Brock actually invited me up on stage to tell my story and why I had come from Maine to be there. It was a heady experience, hearing harrowing stories of survival, and meeting and hearing the story of one of the first firefighters to enter the Cabaret Room, Ft. Thomas firefighter Bruce Rath.
Bruce and I hit it off immediately, and he became a father-figure in my life until the end of his. He was a wonderful individual, and I am proud to have called him my friend.
What is it about the event that you think that made it stand out to you or that has affected you?
Soon after returning from Kentucky, Dave and I spoke on the phone, and he began laying out the real story of the fire, the conspiracy to burn it down, and details he himself witnessed the day and night of the fire. I have always said that his story, and the details contained within, read like a Mario Puzo novel, but he swears every last memory is true, and if that is the case, The Beverly Hills Supper Club fire ranks as one of the largest mass-murders in U.S. history, just behind the bombing of The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK.
Dave and Tom McConaughy began to investigate the fire on their own, and I flew in nearly a dozen times to assist. Research and history is in my blood, and this investigation was right in my wheelhouse. Something sinister had occurred that fateful night, and as the months and years passed by, the evidence became clear. The Beverly was an arson fire, and the State of Kentucky needed to take a second look at it.
I have climbed The Hill countless times, sometimes digging around to find artifacts, and sometimes just to “feel” the surrounding atmosphere. To stand there, especially alone, no matter the time of day, is an extremely humbling experience.
In the following years, I assisted teaching a course at the Southern Maine Community College to aspiring firefighters, “Fire in American Society”, a historical look at firefighting methods and how fire has affected America from the Pilgrims to today. My specialty was The Beverly fire and the Winecoff Hotel fire. The thing I remember most about teaching the BHSC fire is that the class was silent, mesmerized by the story, and especially the sinister nature of its cause.
The Beverly has remained foremost in my mind, since the fire, but especially since 2006, when I waded neck-deep into its story.
In 2012, Dave Brock was the Best Man in my wedding to my wife, Carrie.
Is there anything specific about the fire, how it was handled that night and in the years following that you’d like to share (good or bad regarding on-scene management, the investigation, the aftermath in court, resulting laws, etc).
I have taken a few arson investigation classes during my tenure as a firefighter. I’m certainly no expert in the field, but what I do know is enough to realize that many basic rules of arson investigation and evidentiary preservation were violated, and badly the night of the fire and the days following it.
1. Heavy equipment brought in to remove the collapsed roof of the Cabaret Room to retrieve the dead was “heavy-handed” at the very least, and began to eat away at the building and the evidence within, to the point where investigators with the National Fire Protection Association out of Quincy, MA had to threaten a lawsuit to stop the destruction. But that threat didn’t come in time to prevent the total destruction of the room where the fire was first discovered: The Zebra Room at the front of the building. That particular move was outrageous and should never have happened.
2. The “investigation” was taken over very quickly by the office of the Governor of Kentucky, Julian Carroll, and out of the hands of the real experts on fire and arson investigation, the Kentucky State Fire Marshal’s Office. From what I’ve been told by a number of witnesses, including members in high standing within the state fire marshal’s office, the need to pin the fire on the owners of the club, Richard Schilling, Sr. and the 4R Corporation was immediate and unbending. Arson was absolutely ruled out within 24 hours, and no investigators were allowed to descend into the basement, where photos turned over after a FOIA request by Dave Brock and Tom McConaughy years later, show very obvious signs of fire origin. The question becomes, was the investigation of The Beverly Hills Supper Club fire simply a botched, topical investigation by non-expert, governmental yes-men with an already-decided agenda, or was there a genuine, enormous cover-up for some unknown reason, running through any number of Kentucky law enforcement, investigation and other governmental offices, all the way up to and including the office of the governor. We did our best to peel that onion.
3. The idea that aluminum wiring started or contributed to the fire is a proven fallacy, and if a proper investigation had taken place, would have been found ridiculous and impossible. Unfortunately, the entire world has been sold this false narrative for four decades, and at this point, aluminum wiring as the cause is set in stone, and that is very unfortunate, as it stands in the way of a new, unbiased investigation into the cause.
There are countless other aspects of the investigation that were botched at the very least, or, at most, were criminal actions no state government should ever get away with, and 167 people and their families are likely to never see justice done. That is why I have stayed in this fight for over a decade now.
