1940 — Jan 3, Fire, Marlborough Apartment Hotel, Minneapolis, MN                      —     19

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 10-19-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

–19  Jones, Jon. “A Brief Look at the Hotel Fire Record.” Fire Journal, May 1981, p. 39.

–19  Nathanson, Iric. “The 1940 Marlborough Hotel fire.” Minnpost.com, 1-3-2013.

–19  National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).  Key Dates in Fire History.  1996. 

–19  NFPA. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the United States. 2008.

–19  Ward. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames…,” Firehouse, March 1978, p. 41.

–18  National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).

Narrative Information

Nathanson: “On a frigid winter morning in 1940, just before dawn, an explosion rocked a quiet block at the southern edge of Minneapolis’ downtown. Within minutes, the Marlborough Apartment Hotel at Third Avenue South and Fifteenth Street was engulfed in flames. The deadliest fire in the city’s history, which occurred 73 years ago today, would claim 19 lives and destroy a modest three-story building that housed more than 120 residents.

“The hotel’s janitor, Otto Knaack, provided an eyewitness account of the conflagration. At about 5:45 a.m., Knaack was in the basement hallway just outside the boiler room when the explosion occurred. “When I opened the door, something tossed me back into the areaway in the basement,” he reported. “All the windows in the boiler room were blown out. I got up and went to get my wife and my baby out of our apartment. Then, I went up to the first floor to get my daughter and her roommate out of their rooms. By the time I roused them, the first floor was burning so fiercely we couldn’t get out. We had to jump to the ground 6 feet below. The whole place seemed to go up in flames suddenly.”….

“On Jan. 3, the near-zero temperatures impeded rescue efforts by the city’s fire department and left the hotel’s charred remains an icy ruin. Several of the unfortunate residents had leapt to their death from third-floor windows while others were trapped in their rooms before they had a chance to flee.   

“Fire trucks raced to the scene within minutes after the alarm sounded just before 6 a.m. But the building was already a mass of flames by the time the first rigs reached the hotel. Observers reported hearing the trapped residents screaming for help and watching as they frantically smashed windows with fists, chairs and shoes in an effort to escape. Firemen struggled with frightened victims as they tried to carry them to safety away from the flames. One fireman was bringing a hysterical woman down the fire ladder when she struggled to get free. Both she and her rescuer fell two floors to the sidewalk and were seriously injured.

“As the flames poured out of his third-floor apartment, one frantic man could not wait for the ladders to reach him and his wife. He pushed her out of the window and she fell to her death. He leapt out of the window after her, but he survived.

“As firemen rushed to the aid of the trapped hotel residents, one passerby,  a 29-year-old cab driver named Henry Kadlac, joined in the rescue effort. Described as a real hero by several observers, Kadlac caught many of  the children who jumped out of the burning building or were tossed out by their parents….

“Later,  after the fire had been extinguished, the Minneapolis Tribune’s William Smollett described the smoldering ruins. “Room to room, floor to floor, there was nothing that escaped the flames. Everything was black and charred, and smoke was rising from the center of the building,” Smollett reported….

“The survivors, many of whom suffered severe burns and fractures, were rushed to Minneapolis General Hospital. There, the hospital’s medical team had pioneered the use of a new drug,  sulfanilamide, an antibacterial ointment applied on burns and bone fractures to prevent the spread of infection. Several of the survivors, who were injured when they jumped out of the burning building, were treated with sulfanilamide, which was considered a “wonder drug” of its time. Dr. Wesley Burnham, then  a General Hospital intern, remembers applying the new drug on Marlborough fire victims with severe second degree burns. “It was sulfanilamide and it was red,  “Burnham later recalled. “We smeared the burn areas with this red ointment. And soon everything was bright red. The sheets, the floors, our uniform and anything else the ointment touched.”

“Fire investigators were not able to determine with certainty the cause of the blaze, but they speculated that it might have been sparked by smoldering cigarette butts wrapped in garbage   thrown down the trash chute.  

“The Marlborough Apartment Hotel, a 45-year-old brick and frame building, had been inspected four years earlier but no violations of the city’s fire code had been noted at that time, according to the Minneapolis Star Journal.  “The building was heated by a steam plant fed by coal, and this was found to be in good working order in the 1936 check,” the paper reported. “No ashes were found in the basement and no loose or exposed electric wires were observed. The boiler room was in clean condition.”

“Later investigations confirmed there were no building deficiencies that could have caused the blaze, and that the building’s owner, Henry Janise, who lived at the hotel, was in no way responsible for the disaster. Still, the city’s building inspector,  John Nelson, used the tragic incident to call for stepped-up action against local landlords whose properties were in violation of the city’s building codes. Nelson pointed to four large homes that had been cut up into small apartments illegally. Declaring the owners “flagrant violators of the building code and state housing law,” Nelson said he had asked the city attorney to begin legal action against the owners….”  (Nathanson, Iric. “The 1940 Marlborough Hotel fire: ‘There was nothing that escaped the flames’.” Minnpost.com, 1-3-2013.)

Newspaper

Jan 3:  “Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 3. — (UP) — A thorough search of the fire-swept Marlborough Hotel was completed late today by firemen and Red Cross workers who reported that 18 persons were known dead, 24 were in hospitals, and 19 were missing.

“Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 3. — (UP) –At least 20 persons perished today in a fire that swept up from the furnace room through the halls and stairways of the Marlborough apartment hotel.
Fire Capt. LARRY BUCK said 20 persons either were burned to death or died of injuries received when they jumped from second and third story windows.  City officials said it was the most disastrous fire in Minneapolis’ history.

”Scores of the hotel’s 200 residents were trapped when the flames blocked every stairway.
Screaming women and children jumped from second and third story windows into the icy streets. Many were trapped in their beds. Others ran into the flaming hallways where firemen found their charred bodies.

“Neighbors from blocks around reported that they were awakened shortly after 6 a.m. by the screams of the dying and injured.

“District Fire Chief William Huttner said 11 bodies were taken to the Hennepin county morgue. Within a few minutes a United Press correspondent counted seven more bodies carried from the hotel by firemen.

“Otto Knaack, 49, janitor at the hotel, said he went to the furnace room to start the fire this morning.  “When I opened the door I was struck by a blast that knocked me 10 feet across the hallway,” he said at General Hospital.  “I got up and tried to run, but I fell down. I saw a sheet of flame leap out at me and that’s the last I remember. How I got here I don’t know.”

“At least 40 persons were injured. Of these 23 required hospital treatment. Eighteen were taken to General Hospital and the others to Abbott and Swedish hospitals. Included among the injured were two firemen. Ten were injured seriously when they jumped from the second and third stories.

”Firemen said that when they arrived at the scene on the south side of the downtown section there were many persons who had jumped lying on the ground. Others were battering out upstairs windows and screaming for help.  Several persons were saved by jumping into life nets, but the fire had gained such headway that the firemen were unable to enter the building to aid other persons that were trapped. It was nearly three hours before enough of the fire was extinguished to allow the start of a search for additional bodies.

“Fire Chief Huttner said the exact cause of the fire was not known, but he believed a boiler had exploded in the furnace room.

“Work of firemen in fighting the flames and rescuing those inside was hampered by the bitter cold. It was 5 degrees below zero, and water from the hose lines froze on the outside of the burning three-story building.  Many of those who fled barefooted and in their nightclothes suffered from exposure.

“One unidentified woman leaped head-first from a third-story window. She was killed instantly.
Another woman…refused to jump. Her husband…pushed her from the window ledge and then jumped. She was killed, and her husband was injured seriously.

”A screaming child was trapped in the middle of the building on the third floor, H. O. Williams, a neighbor told the United Press. The child — apparently unable to move because of fright — stood in the center of the flames screaming wildly for 15 minutes before he died…

”The second floor of the hotel collapsed, and firemen said it might be hours before they could determine whether any additional dead were buried in the debris.

”Fifteen engine companies and 5 truck companies answered the four-alarms and brought 130 firemen to the scene. The hotel contained 78 apartments housing 200 persons.  Firemen arrived within 10 minutes after the fire was discovered but they were hampered by the extreme cold and it was another 15 minutes before their hose lines into action.  Water from the hoses froze on the outside of the building and the street soon became a small frozen lake. Within a few minutes the building became a blazing ice palace.

”Attendants at General Hospital said “about 20” of the injured were treated there….

1. McWade, 42, who lives across the street from the Marlborough said he was awakened by “the worst screams I ever heard.” He said he looked out the window and saw the entire hotel covering half a block in flames. “I saw a child trapped in the middle of the building on the third floor, McWade said. “There were flames all about him, and he just stood there screaming.

That lasted for 15 minutes and then he was quiet. He must have been burned to death. I was through the war, but I never saw or heard anything like this.” H. O. Williams, who also lives across the street, said he saw “at least 40” persons carried from the building.

“A fire department official said: “It was reported to us that there was an explosion. When we got there the entire roof was ablaze and every stairway was blocked by flames.”

”At General Hospital, one of the injured, C. F. Callahan, 58, bartender, said he was getting up at 6 a.m. when he smelled smoke. He ran into the hall, saw smoke pouring up the stairway, and ran back into his room on the third floor to awaken his wife. “I’d no sooner shut the door when I heard an explosion,” he said. “When my wife and I reached the hallway flames everywhere.”
“We got down on our stomachs and began crawling toward the rear exit to the fire escape. I raised my head once to look where we were crawling when a sheet of flame burned my face and singed my hair.” “We finally got to the exit and down the fire escape,” he said. “All we could hear was a loud roar.”

”Leo Martin, 43, salesman, who lived on the third floor, said he had his head out the window when he saw a woman in a neighboring apartment dash through the window and land head-first on the pavement below.

The Marlborough is a small apartment hotel on the south side of the city a short distance from the downtown section….”  (Oelwein Daily Register Missouri, Jan 3, 1940.)

Sources

Jones, Jon. “A Brief Look at the Hotel Fire Record.” Fire Journal, May 1981, pp. 38-41.

Nathanson, Iric. “The 1940 Marlborough Hotel fire: ‘There was nothing that escaped the flames’.” Minnpost.com, 1-3-2013. Accessed 3-27-2013 at: http://www.minnpost.com/minnesota-history/2013/01/1940-marlborough-hotel-fire-there-was-nothing-escaped-flames

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at:  http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Email attachment to B. W. Blanchard from Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)

National Fire Protection Association. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the United States as Reported to the NFPA, with Ten or more Fatalities. Quincy, MA: NFPA, One-Stop Data Shop, Fire Analysis and Research Division, January 2008, 4 pages. Accessed at:  http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/Press%20Room/Hotelfirefatalitiesreport.pdf

Oelwein Daily Register.  Minneapolis Has Disastrous Fire–20 Dead, Jan 3, 1940.  Accessed at:  http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/Press%20Room/Hotelfirefatalitiesreport.pdf

Ward, Neale. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames, History’s Famous Hotel Fires,” Firehouse, March 1978, pp. 40-45.