Dodging a Bullet

In 1977, I was a young teacher at the R C Hinsdale Elementary School in Edgewood, Kentucky. One weekend, a group of old friends made plans to go to the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate to hear John Davidson sing. But something came up. One of the wives had to go out of town and our outing fell apart.

Instead, we went to the Dixie Drive-In in Fort Wright.

It was a strange night. Behind the movie screen the sky glowed from a fire at the Duro Paper Bag Company in Ludlow. But behind us on the adjacent I-75, emergency vehicles sped in the opposite direction. Confused, we looked and saw that the sky to the north east was also aglow. That glow came from one of the largest disasters in Kentucky history; the Beverly Hills fire.

Now the survivors say that the investigation into the cause of the fire was flawed and they want to reopen the case.

Since I read this story I have wondered. Am I a survivor? Or did I actually have to show up that night to experience whatever makes one a true survivor? Logically, I admit that I'm not a survivor of that fire. But thirty years later, it still makes me feel funny.

This from MSNBC:

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (AP) - A group of survivors of a 1977 night club fire that killed 165 people near Cincinnati has asked Gov. Steve Beshear to reopen the investigation into its cause.

David Brock, a former employee who was 18 at the time the fire, says he visited with representatives from the Beshear administration on Monday. Brock says the investigation was not done properly and believes the fire may have been intentionally set...