William McGonagall recounts the real-life 1896 blaze at a variety theatre in Aberdeen with his usual fix on facts, names, and timelines. The poem walks through the panic minute by minute: the fire breaking out on stage, the audience stampeding, a man fruitlessly beating flames with his jacket, a passing detective helping people escape. You can feel the speaker’s genuine horror at the “pitiful and fearful sight” of the crowd crushing and falling, and a strange, earnest admiration for those who squeezed through fanlights or scaled advertisement boards to survive. The mood is hard to pin down — McGonagall is utterly serious, yet the wooden rhymes and deadpan delivery keep undercutting the tragedy. His voice hovers between news report and moral reflection, finally settling on a comfortingly vague “accidents will happen” and a hope that the few dead now sing in heaven. It’s a disaster poem that is as sincere as it is inadvertently odd.
The Burning of the People's Variety Theatre, Aberdeen — Summary
'Twas in the year of 1896, and on the 30th of September, Which many people in Aberdeen will long remember; The burning of the People's Variety Theatre, in Bridge Place Because the fire spread like lightning at a rapid pace.
The fire broke out on the stage, about eight o'clock, Which gave to the audience a very fearful shock; Then a stampede ensued, and a rush was made pell-mell, And in the crush, trying to get out, many people fell.
The stage flies took fire owing to the gas Not having room enough by them to pass; And with his jacket Mr. Macaulay tried to put out the flame, But oh! horrible to relate, it was all in vain.
Detective Innes, who was passing at the time of the fire, Rendered help in every way the audience could desire, By helping many of them for to get out, Which was a heroic action, without any doubt.
Oh! it was a pitiful and fearful sight, To see both old and young struggling with all their might, For to escape from that merciless fire, While it roared and mounted higher and higher.
Oh! it was horrible to hear the cries of that surging crowd, Yelling and crying for "Help! help!" aloud; While one old woman did fret and frown Because her clothes were torn off when knocked down.
A lady and gentleman of the Music Hall company, Monti & Spry, Managed to make their escape by climbing up very high To an advertisement board, and smashing the glass of the fanlight, And squeezed themselves through with a great fight.
But accidents will happen both on sea and land, And the works of the Almighty is hard to understand; And thank God there's only a few has fallen victims to the fire, But I hope they are now in Heaven, amongst the Heavenly choir.