#brooklynmd

A fire, which apparently had been burning above a large ceiling at Arundel Park, a popular hall, milk bar and cocktail lounge on Belle Grove Road in northern Anne Arundel County.

“A raging, inferno-like fire…. turned a crowd of 1,175 persons into a panicky, hysterical mob,” The Sun reported.

The story quoted State Del. August C. Myers, who called in a report of the fire at 5:20 p.m.

“People are hysterical. They are piling up by the doors. Hundreds are trapped. God. It’s awful,” he said of the scene at the  community dinner which was sponsored by St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in nearby Brooklyn.

Musicians at the oyster roast tried to calm persons leaving the structure. Some persons climbed through the windows to escape. By the end of the night, 10 women were dead and another 230 people were injured.

Ambulances worked through the night to take them to the old South Baltimore General Hospital and Mercy Medical Center. Their red emergency lights, “poked their beams through a dismal drizzle.”

Andrew Brady, a retired city firefighter, working that night as a security guard, died a week later.

“As the fire began to rage, he stood on a table exhorting the panic-stricken people around him to stay calm,” The Sun reported. He remained in the hall and was badly burned as the last to leave.