5. Rhythm Club Fire
Natchez, Mississippi
April 23, 1940
Death Toll: 209
Rhythm Club, Natchez, Mississippi
This happened back in 1940. The Rhythm Club was a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, a wood framed structure on Catherine St. where patrons, mostly African-American, gathered to watch a performance by Walter Barnes and His Royal Creolians. It is said that somebody discarded a match, which lit up some Spanish moss that was decorating the rafters. The moss had been sprayed with insecticide, which generated methane gas. The whole building was gone within the hour.
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