On the night of Nov. 28, 1942, in the overcrowded Cocoanut Grove night club in Boston, Stanley Tomaszewski lit a match to find a light socket behind a palm tree. One of the palm fronds caught fire. Twelve minutes later 490 people were dead. A Boston newsman gives a vivid and detailed account of the fire. Spreading through dry, inflammable decorations it quickly engulfed the club. Patrons including movie star Buck Jones died because many exits were welded shut. Much attention is given to the excellent rescue work and care for the injured that followed, then to the legal aspects which later brought club owners and fire officials to trial and changed fire laws throughout the country. Written in a terse, informed news style, the book makes moving popular history for a large general audience.