Secret of the most haunting fire in American history

On July 6, 1944, fire suddenly broke out at a circus performance in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, killing nearly 170 people and injuring more than 700 other victims, one of the fires. The worst and most haunting pest in American history.

Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus famous circus.(Photo: History.com).

The horrific incident occurred at the show of the famous Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus circus in Hartford, Connecticut, on a Thursday afternoon 74 years ago.

People come to see circus mostly women and children.(Photo: AP).

The archived documents from that time show that July 6, 1944 was a hot day. However, adverse weather conditions clearly did not prevent the audience from coming to see it. About 7,000 - 8,000 people gathered inside a giant main tent, 150m long, erected on a field in Hartford's Barbour district. All eager to admire the fascinating performances of clowns, lion coaches and acrobatic artists.

The Great Wallendas acrobatics performed for about 20 minutes, when Merle Evans, the circus owner, discovered the fire was beginning to spread from the southwest wall onto the roof of the tent. Instinctively, Mr. Evans ordered the orchestra to play the "Stars and Stripes Forever" , a circus-picked piece that signaled danger.

Hearing the melody, Fred Bradna, the person in charge of the performance tried to inform the crowd. However, his warnings were ignored.

Fire was beginning to spread from the southwest wall onto the roof of the tent.(Photo: AP).

The fire spread very quickly, invading the outer layers of the tent, which was covered with water and a mixture of beeswax and gasoline.

"I remember someone screaming, then saw a huge fireball on the roof of the tent," Maureen Krekian, 74, a survivor told in a 2007 interview with NPR. Krekian was only 11 years old when the fire broke out.

"At that time, everyone was terrified. The pathway was blocked because of the captive cages . At that moment, there was a young man using a knife to slit the tent and grab my arm out. " , Mrs. Krekian recalled.

Many people died when the 19-ton tent collapsed nearly 10 minutes after the fire broke out.(Photo: NYT).

Ms. Krekian is among the luckiest. Others were burned alive or choked with toxic smoke or trampled while the crowd became panicked, seeking to escape all the way. The remaining people died when the 19-ton tent collapsed nearly 10 minutes after the fire broke out.

The bodies were found after the fire.(Photo: History.com).

When the fire was extinguished, the bodies of nearly 170 people were found, mostly women and children, inside the ruins. Authorities did not disclose the exact number of casualties. A few casualties cannot be identified.

Among the survivors, nearly 700 cases were injured.

One of the victims remains unknown to the authorities until now is a blonde girl nicknamed "little lady 1565" , ordered by the number attached to her at the morgue of Hartford city. . The identity of this victim has become a major controversial topic.

Some believe it is Sarah Graham, 6 years old. While others said it was Eleanor Emily Cook from Massachusetts. The Connecticut State Police Department's forensic center opened an investigation to identify "1565 little lady" since 2005.

Circus circled after the fire.(Photo: AP).

Police are investigating.(Photo: Word Press).

The terrible fire at Hartford circus show shook the whole United States at that time. The tragedy later became the obsession of many generations of Americans.

The investigating agency said that the incident originated from a bad smoking cigarette, carelessly discarded. Not long after the fire, 5 of the circus owners were accused of manslaughter. Four of them were convicted, but ended up being pardoned. The circus compensated nearly 5 million USD to the families of the victims.

Nearly six years after the incident, in May 1950, while being questioned for a minor fire intentional attempt, Robert Dale Segee , a 21-year-old resident of Circleville, Ohio, confessed that the culprit caused a fire. Segee in Hartford in 1944. Segee also said that he caused more than 20 other fires in Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio, as well as killing four people.

Robert Dale Segee claimed to be the culprit who fired a circus in Hartford.(Photo: Wikipedia).

According to the June 30, 1950 issue of The Milwaukee Journal, Segee told police that he had been haunted by intense dreams for years, sometimes urging him to commit crimes.

Segee has provided authorities with their crime details and plans. However, they could not determine whether those confessions were credible or not. The doctors examined Segee in conclusion, he was mentally ill.

Later, Segee retracted the confessions. Eventually, he was convicted of only two fires and a total of more than 40 years in prison.

In 1993, federal investigators reopened an investigation into the circus fire in Hartford. After re-questioning Segee, at age 63, they still failed to obtain evidence to support or reject his 1950 confession statements.

Four years later, in 1997, Segee died, carrying everything he knew into the grave. So far, the cause of the most haunting fire in American history is still a secret.