1938 — May 16, Fire, Terminal Hotel, Atlanta, GA — 35

— 38 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 328.
— 35 AP. “Randleman Man Dies of Hotel Fire Burns.” Wilson Daily Times, NC, 5-26-1938, p.6.
— 35 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 35 NFPA. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the United States. 2008.
— 35 NFPA. “Terminal Hotel Fire, Atlanta, Ga.” Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1, July 1938, p. 46.
— 35 Ward. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames…,” Firehouse, March 1978, p. 41.
— 34 AP. “Atlanta Hotel Fire Cause Undetermined.” Sarasota Herald, FL. 5-21-1938, p. 1.
— 34 Findagrave.com. “20-Terminal Hotel Fire Victims.” East Point Historical Society.
— 34 The Best of Images of America. Atlanta Vintage Images of an All-American City. 2000, 34.
— 33 AP. “Death Toll Now 33 in Atlanta Hotel Fire.” Thomasville Times-Enterprise, GA, 5-18-1938, 1.
— 32 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, p. 6.
— 27 Nebraska State Journal. “27 Hotel Guests Perish in a Fire at Atlanta, GA. May 17, 1938.

Narrative Information

NFPA: “The worst hotel fire tragedy in the United States since the burning of the Windsor Hotel in New York City nearly 40 years-ago took place in Atlanta, Ga., on May 16, 1938. An early morning fire starting in the basement swept the Terminal Hotel. Thirty-five of its 65 occupants were killed and many others injured. The building was of five-story brick joist construction with unprotected elevator and stair shafts extending from the basement to the top floor. The fire department responded immediately upon discovery of the fire, but upon arrival the fire had already reached such intensity in the upper floors that little rescue work could be done. The fire resulted in a total loss to the building.
Construction and Occupancy.

“The building, located in the congested business district, was erected in 1908. According to the present building inspector, who was an assistant in¬spector in 1908, the building code in effect at the time did not permit a building of this construction and occupancy over four stories in height. By a special ordinance the city council permitted the erection of this building of excess height.

“The hotel covered approximately 5000 square feet of ground area. Com¬bustible interior construction,. besides ordinary joisted floors and roofs, included wooden lath and plaster partitions and composition board on wooden studs. The single elevator shaft was partly enclosed by wooden lath and plaster parti¬tion on three sides, but had an open metal grillwork on the fourth side. There was an unprotected stairway extending upward through the building. There was a small hoistway from the basement kitchen to a restaurant on the first floor.

“The basement, where the fire started, contained a pool room, pressing club, kitchen and storeroom for the restaurant, building maintenance shop, boiler room and other service rooms. The first floor contained a restaurant, clothing store, liquor store, barber shop and hotel lobby. Above the first floor were guest rooms.

Discovery of the Fire.

“Two restaurant employees were in the basement and four hotel and restaurant employees were on the first floor when the fire started shortly after 3 a.m.. There were also at least two customers in the first floor restaurant.

“Although there was some conflict in minor details, the testimony of the employees and customers was essentially concurrent in the following: One kitchen employee in the basement had gone to the restaurant storeroom through a passageway extending under the sidewalk. Upon his return, not over ten minutes later, the employee found smoke issuing from the ceiling in the small hallway just outside the kitchen door. He immediately went upstairs through the lobby into the restaurant and notified the restaurant operator, who returned with him to the basement. At the same time smoke was noticed in the restaurant from the kitchen hoistway.

“When the men returned to the basement the smoke was extremely dense and the restaurant operator immediately returned to the restaurant and then went to the fire alarm box across the street with the restaurant customers, who turned in an alarm. The kitchen employee made his way out through on open¬ing in the north wall of the basement. He had to break two locks and when he reached the alley the fire department had arrived.

“The other kitchen employee was in the basement but was vague as to his exact location. He first saw dense smoke outside the kitchen door and attempted to get his clothes, located in the northeast portion of the basement. He returned to the hallway between the kitchen and pressing club but found flames in the ceiling of the hall, ceiling and floor of the kitchen, and found the grease vent from the kitchen stove red hot. When he escaped to the alley to the north the fire department had arrived.

“The hotel clerk and elevator operator were in the lobby when their atten¬tion was attracted simultaneously by the restaurant employees and smoke from the floor near the clerk’s desk. The hotel clerk attempted to notify the fire department and guests by telephone and sustained some burns before leaving. The elevator operator took the elevator to the basement and discovered dense smoke and flame. He started the elevator to the upper floors to warn guests, but it stopped between the first and second floor level and the operator was forced to leave.

Loss of Life.

“According to the chief of the fire department and several witnesses, when the fire department arrived dense smoke surrounded the building and flames were issuing from several windows on upper floors. Occupants were jumping from windows on upper floors, but due to dense smoke it was impossible to see the exact location from which they came and nets could not be used success¬fully. The first efforts of the fire department were concentrated on such rescue work as was possible under the circumstances and several occupants were brought safely down fire department ladders.

“The centrally located interior unenclosed stairway and elevator shaft were involved early in the fire and rendered useless. One open fire escape was located on the north side and one on the south side of the building, extending from the second to the fifth floor levels. These fire escapes passed directly by unprotected window openings and although of some assistance in rescue work they were involved in the early stages of the fire and not effective as a means of egress. In addition to the thirty-five lives lost, several other persons were severely burned or injured by jumping. A. number of bodies were removed in an unburned condition, indicating that death had been due to suffocation.
Fire Extinguishment

“The first alarm was received at 3:15 a.m. over the fire alarm system. Four pumpers, two aerial ladder trucks, one service ladder truck, one rescue squad wagon and a water tower responded under the command of the chief and one assistant chief. Additional alarms, including a general alarm, brought a total of eighteen pumpers and eight ladder trucks to the scene. Off shift firemen were called for duty either at the fire or to man spare apparatus at vacated stations. Apparatus from Fort McPherson and Fulton County moved into the city for response to a second fire, and one Fulton County pumper responded to the hotel fire.

“Hose lines were promptly laid and the fire was fought from the street and from the adjoining Sylvan Hotel. Due to the headway and intensity of the fire on arrival of the department, no lines could be carried into the building. Eleven pumpers supplied a total of 32 hose lines. A water tower, ladder pipe and two deluge nozzles were used. The water supply was adequate and uninterrupted.

“The fire was confined to the building of origin and by 6. a.m. had been con¬trolled to such an extent as to permit the removal of bodies from the south portion of the building, which did not collapse. One person removed at this time from the south portion of the second floor was still alive. By about 9 a.m. the fire was practically extinguished.

Origin of the Fire.

“The exact origin of the fire has not been determined. The search for bodies necessarily disturbed a great portion of the debris, and the volume of debris precluded early observation of many areas. While not necessarily con¬clusive, it appears highly probable that the fire originated in the north portion of the pressing club, either inside the room or in a concealed space in the ‘wall or ceiling. Fire evidently smoldered for a considerable period of time before discovery, sending hot gases to the upper floors through unprotected openings in the elevator shaft. A horizontal metal grease duct from the kitchen range crossed the pressing room about six to twelve inches from the ceiling. When the fire gained sufficient headway, grease in the horizontal duct was ignited, generating sufficient heat to ignite additional woodwork, creating a large volume of smoke and igniting the accumulated preheated gases on the upper floors. After the fire was extinguished, it was noticed that the first floor timbers over the grease vent in the pressing room were practically burned in two inside of the pressing room, but the timbers over the grease vent pipe in the hallway outside of the pressing club showed only slight fire damage. Likewise the north partition of the pressing club was much more seriously burned on the inside than on the outside, indicating that the fire started in the pressing club. The south end of the basement in the pool room showed practically no fire damage. The kitchen vent fan over the doorway into the hallway was distorted, but motor leads were intact, although charred. Motor windings were intact and did not indicate severe fire damage.

Conclusions.

“This fire is another example of the large life and property loss which may occur in buildings of this construction and occupancy, even though under good public fire protection. It appears that the greatest contributing factor in this disaster was the inherent construction of this multiple-story, unsprinklered building, having wooden joisted interior and unprotected stairway and elevator shafts. Lack of automatic sprinkler and automatic fire alarm equipments, together with inadequate exit facilities, also contributed to the disaster…. “ (NFPA. “Terminal Hotel Fire, Atlanta, Ga.” Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 1, July 1938, pp. 46-51.)

Newspapers

May 17: “Atlanta. (AP). A pre-dawn fire that turned the 30 year old Terminal hotel into a flaming horror in ten minutes killed 27 persons and left a score more missing or injured. Engineers estimated it might be two days before the wreckage was cleared and the full toll determined. The hotel register was lost.

“The blaze broke out in the basement of the five story brick and frame building about 3 a. m., when most of its guests were asleep. Flames and smoke shot skyward and in a moment every floor was ablaze. Home to many railroad men, the $1 and up a day hotel was situated opposite the terminal station on Spring st., in downtown Atlanta. Traffic for blocks around was jammed as police roped off the area against danger of falling walls. Thousands, some of them relatives, pressed against the fire lines, throughout the day.

“Bellhop Charlie Labon, a veteran of 20 years’ service, was in the lobby when the blaze caught. He said he heard a kitchen messboy scream: “Oh lawdy, fire” then there was a muffled blast below and flamed puffed upward. Labon dived for the elevator and Ben L. Berry, 78 year old clerk turned to the switchboard to warn the guests. But the blaze burned out the connections. The flames spread so quickly I had to jump from the elevator cage on the second floor and run, said Labon. Berry got burned trying to ring the phones. There wasn’t anyone got out except those that jumped or got down the fire escape. Several were killed leaping from the flaming building. The fire choked off fire escapes and stairs a few seconds after it caught.

“William Oscar Webster, Columbus, Ga., railroad engineer, jumped from a fourth floor window. His body tumbled across the street. He was dead when rescuers reached him. One victim was found dead on a second floor ledge of the hotel court, where he had struck in a leap for safety. Some were burned to death and others suffocated. Many of the bodies were horribly mangled in the collapse of floors and steel work.” (Nebraska State Journal, May 17, 1938)

May 16: “Many of the dead were found in the charred timbers and steel which dropped from the roof, carrying away the burning floors.” (Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH). “More Than Score Perish in Hotel Fire,” May 16, 1938, A1.)

May 17: “Firemen told of finding one group, apparently a family. A woman dead in a rocking chair, a little girl knelt by the bead and a man and a little boy lay stretched across it. One couple, awakened by the smell of smoke, escaped by climbing thru a second floor window and walking a narrow ledge 200 feet to a corner where a ladder was placed. George P. Jones, hotel manager, said at a hospital he was too sick to talk but estimated at least 75 persons were in the structure.” (Nebraska State Journal, May 17, 1938.)

May 18: “Atlanta, May 18 (AP) – Firemen and laborers today neared the end of their gruesome search for victims in the Terminal Hotel fire ruins – a search which already has yielded 33 bodies.

“Mayor William B. Hartsfield ordered additional city workers into the ruins today with the hope all debris left by the early Monday morning blaze could be removed by nightfall.

“Seven bodies were recovered yesterday. Of the 33 removed thus far only three, two men and one woman, are unidentified. Fire Chief O. J. Parker predicted additional bodies would be found.

“City authorities said the brick walls of the five story building would be pulled down immediately after the search for the dead is ended.

“John W. Sikes, secretary to the Fulton county grand jury, said the jury would confer with city officials tomorrow relative to the fire.” (AP. “Death Toll Now 33 in Atlanta Hotel Fire.” Thomasville Times-Enterprise, GA, 5-18-1938, p. 1.)

May 20: “Atlanta, May 20 – (AP) – A coroner’s jury, inquiring into the Terminal hotel fire in which 34 persons lost their lives, today reported the cause of the flames undetermined. The inquest was called by Coroner Paul Donehoo to determine whether there was any criminal responsibility. Over a score of witnesses testified.

“All but one of the bodies taken from the ruins have been identified. Five persons rescued from the hotel remain in hospitals.” (Associated Press. “Atlanta Hotel Fire Cause Undetermined.” Sarasota Herald, FL. 5-21-1938, p. 1.)

May 26: “Atlanta, May 26. – (AP) – Burns received in the Terminal Hotel fire last week proved fatal Tuesday night [May 24] to William A. Clapp, 39, of Randleman, N.C. His death brought the death total to 35. Clapp, one of the first to leave the flaming hotel, died in a private hospital….” (AP. “Randleman Man Dies of Hotel Fire Burns.” Wilson Daily Times, NC, 5-26-1938, p. 6.)

Sources

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Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, OH. “More Than Score Perish in Hotel Fire,” May 16, 1938, A1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=3916640

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