Disasters of the Century | Season 7 | Blue Bird Fire | Ian Michael Coulson | Bruce Edwards 

When I go to any public building, my first thought is to check for exits. I have left buildings that I felt uncomfortable in do to exit locations, or other issues. I once left a church choir anniversary due to extension cords running across the floors. Nothing happened, but I could not stay as I did not feel safe. Always trust your own judgment. Be safe

When they described the layout of the building, I started getting chills. It was almost like the Cocoanut Grove in miniature, and the results were just as horrific. Locked exit doors. Barricaded windows. A blocked main entrance. Almost no fire escapes. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

You can't convince me that those cowardly arsonists who maliciously set fire to the club, had no intentions of harming the occupants!!! Complete contrast to the heroic efforts of others, especially the actions of Darrel Perrin!

Damn, I thought it was going to be some sort of accident. Bastards. But boarding up windows and locking that door was pretty stupid on the part of the bar itself.

"Investigators were dumbfounded how one gallon of gasoline could cause such devastation and tragedy." I can tell right there who failed their Fire Safety Courses. A cup of gasoline could have caused the same amount of damage (under the circumstances); a gallon was just overkill.

As it is in Aviation, Railroading, and every other large entity you can think of, safety regulations are written in blood. RIP these folks and hope their families heal.

This gives me Happy Land fire flashbacks it was a fire that happened in New York City in 1990 and it was also started by a disgruntled person.

Fun fact for the comments section: A few years after this episode initially aired on TV, they did make a memorial to the victims of the fire. Around the 40 year anniversary of it

When they mentioned that the windows were boarded, I immediately thought of the Rhythm Nightclub Fire.

Never heard of this tragedy. Thank You BDHQ

if they didn't think it would be so dangerous, the man wouldn't have waited for his friend to come down the steps

omg I wasn't expecting the fire to have been cause INTENTIONALLY wow

I was 13 at that time. My parents were planning to go the Bluebird that night. The adult babysitter was unable to sit that night. And I would not be able to control my 3 wild younger sisters. Had Mme. ______ been able to sit, we could of been 4 orphans also.

This made me miss being able to go out and hanging with friends. RIP to the victims

Reminds me of the Happy Land Fire in an illegal social club in the Bronx. Some guy who argued with his girlfriend who worked there came back with some gasoline, doused the stairs with it and lit it up, trapping most people on the upper level, just like this. There was no other way out.

50 years now; R.I.P. to the victims.

My heart goes out to all that were affected🙏. Thanks for the upload.

Instead of locking the door from the outside, they could have just place one or two doormen on for door. So it could be unlocked and stop young people getting in and people getting out without paying for their fun time.

Even an idiot knows that deliberately setting a fire in an occupied building risks killing people. It's not like a toddler playing with a lighter accidentally starting a blaze. Those guys meant people to get hurt. They blocked the main exit so people couldn't get out.

Ah, that papyrus font for the title. The 90s.

They could have stopped people coming in and leaving and still not locked the door if they had someone on the door

In the 1970s I worked at a club owned by two retired firemen. Between the sprinkler system, the alarm system, the easily accessible exits, the locations of hand held fire extinguishers, and the fire drills employees went through every ninety days, it was the safest club I ever worked for! I can say without reservation, that I highly reccomend nightclubs which are owned by firemen. As for the arsonists behind this tragedy, I certainly hope they died in prison, or better yet, are still rotting away in their cells.

Those 3 guys spent 10 years in jail and were released. That's not justice.

The murderers would have known what they were doing and what the likely consequences would be. Such dreadful sadness for the families

My father was a firefighter at the time, and he went to the blue bird, to fight that fire.

So the 2 guys poured gas through the Stairway & lite a match(not knowing the murders they would Couse) How Drunk or Dum where they. That was no mistake, just plain killing.

Absolutely love this show!!

Many of the bars I went to n Montreal in the 70's were fire traps. I hate to think about it now. I was very lucky.

THESE EVENTS KEEP HAPPENING AND THERE IS A COMMON FACTOR. MANAGEMENT.

I've been waiting years for this to be uploaded. THANK YOU!!!

Been looking forward to this for awhile. Thank you. Stay safe folks.

I really love this series, a lot!

"Disaster strikes when you least expect it"...must...stay...anxiety-ridden....

Paroled within ten years of sentencing ??? Where's the justice in that ??? This was done deliberately knowing people were inside. As far as I'm concerned this is clearly a case of 37 counts of Murder, not attempted Manslaughter not a slap on the wrists reprimand. The victims names should have been read out in Court and the Jury should have agreed a Life sentence for each life lost simple as that !!!! The ridiculously leinent sentencing that I just read on Wikipedia got me so angry. For all those who died I'm sorry harsher sentences weren't dealt. Your lives deserved more justice.

I love older documentaries. Reminds me of sitting at my grandparents on the weekends watching an old box tv and eating some good ole southern cooking.

It amazes me when clubs and restaurants lock doors to keep people from coming and going when you consider how little employees make at such places. All you have to do is post an employee at the door. It would cost virtually nothing.

If the fire escape had been properly reinforced and the police had guarded the entrances, no one would have been killed and the Bluebird Cafe would still be business at Montreal, Quebec, Canada today.

Thank you for interesting disaster videos. Learn about lots of lesser known events. 👍

So what happened to the guys who started the fire? 😳

This is so tragic and damn those idiot's for deliberately killing innocent people for nothing, there really should be a memoriam of some kind set up for the lost guys and gals who died in the Blue Bird Fire. RIP to Them All.

A few years ago I mentioned how much I liked and appreciated your videos, especially DotC. Well I'm happy to see your back and still like and appreciate your videos.

I'm mad that this happened. That was so unnecessary! Why did those three have to do this?

This is tragic, but I'm kind of amused that no one lost their cowboy hats in the reenactment

A quote from the link recommended by JerseyBytes2. It is about James O'Brien, one of the men who poured the gasoline. "After being paroled in 1982, he was convicted of nine charges related to impaired driving. He was also convicted of theft, assaulting a peace officer and production of cannabis. The most recent offence was in 2007, when he was caught driving a car while impaired. The summary describes how O’Brien was given a break last year when police arrived at his residence after someone called to report hearing an argument. The officers noticed he was drunk and informed his parole officer. But his caseworkers decided that, instead of returning him behind bars, he could attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and submit to more frequent tests." I think the next time I want to commit a serious crime, up to and including murder, I'll go to Canada to do it. Seems like you can keep on messing up while you are still on parole and there won't be any consequences. Here in the US they would have been executed, (the laws still allowed for that in every state), no questions, just fry 'em.

Monstrous

derril is a good old canadian guy

OMIGOD STUBBIES! Where did they find those to film with?

My mom was passing through Montreal in the 70s on her way home from uni when she was nearly shot while passing a bank that was getting robbed.

Love Montreal, beautiful city.

Australia had a very similar fire at the Whiskey Au Go Go Club in Brisbane, exactly 6mths & a week after this one, but there was more planning as it was part of an extortion attempt. However, there are striking similarities between the two events such as accelerant being ignited in the entrance (which was at the base of the stairs), & obstructed fire-escape routes! More info; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Au_Go_Go_fire

To prevent potential people leaving without paying the owners of that nightclub locked the door from the outside. This video doesn’t mention if they were prosecuted and jailed but they should have been. It also didn’t say what happened to the arsonists. They should’ve gotten life in prison. And who was the fire inspector who inspected that building? For his complete incompetence he should’ve been charged and prosecuted too. It’s simple to design a building with exits that could be used in case of emergencies. This building was a death trap. Even the fire escape collapsed. The city of Montreal should’ve closed all businesses until they passed new stringent guidelines. Why does it always take huge loses of life before businesses act responsibly?

One lesson is to NEVER remove fire exits in ANY way.

This is why in cases like this I am all for the death penalty

Shocking…so shocking!

I’m not trying to make light of this tragedy, but it’s kind of amusing that in the reenactment every single person who escaped (after fighting their way through smoke, crawling over people, through tiny openings, etc.) still has their cowboy hat on.

That building was a death trap so sad may they all rip

This happened 10 months & 18 days before i was born.

The arsonists should have been kept in prison until they died.

Terrible tragedy. I'd never heard of it previously. Good program. Hope lessons have been learned!

And the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire 1977

Where are the fire extinguishers? I would think Canada laws would be like U.S. ones on this occasion.

who the fukk does this for getting barred?!? to go back for a fight, i can understand, but to attempt to mass murder an entire nightclub full of people because of an argument with a stranger?!? proper psychopaths!

sooooooooo glad i never hung out in bars thanks mom

This is one of the few times on this series where the disaster involved malice.

Yes the arsonists were to blame for the original fire but the patrons may have all been able to escape if it wasn't for the incompetence of the management

some of these i didn't know happen

You dont light stairs on fire with gasoline of a nightclub full of people to cause property damage......thats absolutely rediculous

Do you think that you could might do another video of disaster of the century episode about the chase Maryland rail disaster back in 1987? If not? It’s ok, but I’ll still be excited to see new videos of disaster of the century.

This is unexpected since the Granduc one is missing. I wonder what happened. But thanks for the new one.

So senseless...So tragic. I was 14 y/o when this happened. It's one of those events where you know where you were when it happened. Just a little clarification to this otherwise excellent documentary; The country music band who were playing at the Wagon Wheel that night was not "Pete and the Country Gentlemen" Actually it was "Don, Curly and the Dudes." I later got to know them all very well a few years after the fire. Four years after this tragedy I too began playing in a country music band here in Montreal. I started at the Riverview Hotel in Chateauguay. The band then moved to a club on Decarie Blvd called the Dolce Vita - directly across from the old Blue Bonnets horse racing track - where we worked for three years. My point is that this club was almost a carbon copy of the Bluebird/ Wagon Wheel setup. It was up a steep set of stairs above the Pare Tavern. If a fire had ever started, it would have gone up in flames very quickly. It was a real tinderbox. There were only two exits... one near the front of the club and an emergency exit at the back by the stage. I would check this emergency door every night to make sure it wasn't locked. But even with that i often wondered if those two narrow staircases would have been enough to allow everyone to get out if a fire ever started. Thankfully it never happened. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families.

Today is the 49th anniversary of this disaster.

Very sad x

I wish the documentary had gone into detail about how the suspects were captured.

And all the tragedy has been happend because of the emotionless and evil behavior of these guys! I wished I could give them the most nasty spanking with the old German washing club from my great-grandmother! That's it! Period, end of story! 😠😠😠😠😠RIP to all the deceased people who lost their own lives in this horrible and unacceptable tragedy and for the surviving people I wish them all together all the power to get over with it! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏Lovely greetings from Sarah 🙋‍♀💝🤗😍💖

Imagine dying horribly because some skinflint was afraid of missing a booze dollar.

How about doing a piece on the accident in the Russian Pavilion, Expo ‘67?

Hey @BadDayHQ. Is there a reason you removed the Granduc Avalanche video?

Yush

This comes up again and again, someone revenging something and innocent people dies. Gothenburg club fire in 1998 is another example of this, started by 4 young upset men and the result was 63 people dead. What is going on in these arsonists minds, I will never understand it.

🙏💙

What happend to the persons that started the fire? What episode is it were a class of students is taken out by an avalache just a short time after another avalanche at the same place?

Was there not an avalanche video posted earlier today, or was I experiencing a glitch in the matrix?

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York and The Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston are two other examples of business owners getting people killed by keeping exits locked to prevent theft or sneaking out on the tab. Fire safety is something that needs to be forced by regulations because nobody ever considers it until the worst happens.

There is absolutely zero surprise to me that the 3 murderers (not 2 as shown in this episode) did less than 10 years for this massacre. Canada’s sentencing is notoriously weak, but I believe they are gradually getting stronger over time.

The people responsible were sentenced to life in prison. They were all released within a decade.

Who were the fire inspectors who checked the Blue Bird Cafe - Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe? What a freakin' clown show!! The guys who started this should have been hung from a telephone pole in the public square.

I was looking through my town archives and I discovered that half the town burned in 1901 and there isn’t even a Wikipedia article about it it’s completely forgotten only in the town’s archives is it remembered

Death trap. Like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Horrible.

Some similarities to the Upstairs Lounge fire in New Orleans. Horrible.

you should cover the disappearance and loss of MH370 and the sinking of the RMS Titanic

We must learn from disasters to prevent them from repeating. Safety regulations are written in blood. May I suggest the great train wreck of 1918 as the next subject?

How much jail time did the arsonists get and did the owners get any jail time?

When will business owners learn. Is it worth a human life to lock doors or have flammable decor. I will admit that this fire is arson. Why could't they hire security to watch the doors. Security at the doors could have saved liuves.

Why hasn’t this channel done the Iroquois Theater yet?

So no one went to prison over this? This was cold blooded murder. I must have missed it if it was mentioned.

O'Brien is finally in prison where he belongs again... Hopefully he isn't given another chance.

Did those two men serve prison time for causing the disaster?

What punishment did the arsonists get?

those arsonists had better be in jail still. cowards,

None of us are promised tomorrow, wake up and get saved.