Eighty years later, Jerry LeVasseur can still remember the melting paraffin dripping onto him, burning his skin as he and his mother tried to escape, his mother falling on top of him.
Just as survivors of World War II are dwindling, so are those who lived through the Hartford Circus Fire of July 6, 1944, which killed at least 168 people, 100 of them children, and injured hundreds more. Among the dead were 59 children who were 9 or younger.
The Flying Wallendas were on the high wire in one of the circus’ three rings that day, according to the next day’s Hartford Courant.
LeVasseur, 6 at the time, who now lives in Brunswick, Maine, is one of the few living survivors and says, despite major injuries, including the loss of most of his left hand’s fingers, he has maintained a positive attitude toward life.
LeVasseur has vivid memories of being in the balcony of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top on Barbour Street on that hot afternoon when a small fire suddenly roared into a mammoth inferno. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of 6,000 gallons of gasoline and and 1,800 pounds of paraffin wax.
“We were up in the bleachers somewhere, and the animal act had just finished and a high-wire act” had begun, he said. “All of a sudden they started coming down. And I looked over to my right and there were flames on the tent at that time. They had fires before but it never got to the main tent.
“That day they had no fire extinguishers out because they were late getting there. And at that time, the tent was covered with paraffin with gasoline to waterproof it.”
The big top went up in about 10 minutes, LeVasseur said. He and his mother, Marion, headed for the entrance, but animal cages were blocking it and they had to climb over them. A police officer grabbed his mother’s hand but she lost her son’s grip and eventually fell on top of him. His mother didn’t survive.
“A policeman grabbed my mother’s hand and she must have had mine, and he was pulling her up and somebody must have hit us,” LeVasseur said. “And then I fell and then probably she fell on top of me. And they had to get out of there just because of the tent coming down and so forth. So they couldn’t do anything.”
Somehow, LeVasseur was taken out of the tent and to a hospital. He was put in an oxygen tent, sharing a bed with another child who died.
“So the parts of me that got burnt were from the arms, my head, shoulders and so forth,” he said. “I was one of I think two or three that were carried out of this pile right near the cages there, still alive.”
“And somebody said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to make it,’ ” he said. “And I said to myself, Oh, yes, I am. And that’s my attitude towards life. Anyway, I was taken to Hartford Hospital at some point, I remember skin just hanging off my arms, and then you know, them cutting it off.”
Despite losing his fingers on his left hand, LeVasseur played sports at the Gunnery School (now the Frederick Gunn School) in Washington, and went on to Lehigh University, where he majored in accounting.
He said his scarring would get him into fights as a kid and “even adults would look at me strangely,” though he went on to become chief financial officer for a company.
There haven’t been many reunions, LeVasseur said. He went to the 50th anniversary, but the only people recognized were the police and military who were involved.
“When Stuart O’Nan wrote his book (“The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy”), and he was going to have a get-together at the Hartford library, the State Library, I said, have name tags,” LeVasseur said.
“So he did and then I got to meet some of the people that were also injured. And it’s too bad that it wasn’t a situation like people in the war where you get together every year or every five years or something, but we never did that,” he said.
Several circus officials went to prison for charges related to the fire. In the aftermath the use of highly flammable water proofing was discontinued or outlawed. Hartford officials and cities around the country also changed how circuses and other carnivals were allowed to operate.
LeVasseur has focused on running throughout his life.
“I’m still competing at 86. I belong to the New England 65-Plus Runners club,” he said. “Five of us are going to nationals, but within the last year we have set six national records and two world records in relays.” He’s also raised sled dogs.
He and his wife have four daughters and three grandchildren.
He looks back on “a very good life. I’m happy with what we’ve done. I’m in a bunch of halls of fame for running and it’s been good.”
They include Maine Running, Gunnery Athletic, Bowdoin Officials, New England 65-Plus Runners club and Maine Senior Games. “Running’s been very good to me,” he said.
After all he went through, he said he wouldn’t have a problem going to the circus again (he’s not sure whether he’s been since 1944).
“I know it wouldn’t bother me,” he said.
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