The fire broke out at 2:40 p.m.
With primary source documents and survivor interviews, Big Top Burning recounts the True Story of the 1944 Hartford circus fire-.
Not everyone had made it out alive.
By 2:50 the tent had burned to the ground.
Suddenly someone screamed "Fire " and the panic began.
Thousands of men, women, and children were crowded under Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey\'s big top watching the Flying Wallendas begin their death-defying high-wire act.
The fire broke out at 2:40 p.m