Montes Movie Theater fire

1941 building fire in Guadalajara, Mexico

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Montes Movie Theater fireDate| 6 July 1941

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Time| About 6:30 p.m.
Location| Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Coordinates| 20°40′56″N 103°21′11″W﻿ / ﻿20.68222°N 103.35306°W﻿ / 20.68222; -103.35306
Cause| Ignition of screen due to a lightning strike
Deaths| 86
Non-fatal injuries| 11
City of Guadalajara

The Montes Movie Theater fire occurred on 6 July 1941,[1] at the Montes Movie Theater in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, resulting in 86 deaths and eleven injured. The fire destroyed the relatively small building.

The theater was located on Mezquitán Street between Angulo and Herrera y Cairo, the present location of the Jardín del Refugio (Garden of the Refuge), in downtown Guadalajara.[citation needed] At the time of the fire, 2,500 people were crowded into the theater.[2]

The fire originated after lightning struck the stage or screen. Much of the audience was frightened when seeing the flames and stampeded towards the doors, which led to the deaths of 86[a] people who were trampled, crushed, or asphyxiated. Eleven others survived with injuries.[1] People in the gallery had to escape by running down two flights of stairs.[2]

According to United Press International reports published in United States newspapers, a crowd of three thousand people formed the next day at the city hospital seeking to identify the victims.[2] Thirty-seven women and sixteen children were among the dead.[2]

According to an advertisement in the Sunday, 6 July 1941 edition of the Guadalajaran daily newspaper El Informador, the theater was showing Bulldog Drummond's Revenge (1937) and La vuelta del Charro Negro (The return of the Black Charro) (1941).[3]

## Notes

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1. ^ UPI reported 87 deaths

## References

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1. ^ a b "Espantosa tragedia en el Cine "Montes"". El Informador, pp. 1 and 3 (in Spanish). 7 July 1941. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
2. ^ a b c d "Mexican Theater". The St. Louis Star and Times. July 7, 1941. Retrieved June 14, 2022 - via Newspapers.com.
3. ^ "HOY Domingo en los CINES MONTES Y ESPAÑA, p. TRECE (indexed as "5" at the online newspaper library)". El Informador (in Spanish). 6 July 1941. Retrieved 23 January 2022.