1944 — March 28, New Amsterdam Hotel Arson Fire, San Francisco, CA                    —     22

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 4-10-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

— 24  National Fire Protect. Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).[1]

— 22  Hayward Review, CA. “Holman Convicted for Murder of 22.” 8-4-1944, p. 1.

— 22  Lotchin, Roger W. The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco…Oakland…  2003, 213.

— 22  Oakland Tribune. “Oakland Firebug Set Blaze that Killed 22, Says Official.” 3-28-1944, 1.

— 22  Oakland Tribune, CA. “Police Alert for Firebug; Blaze Nipped.” 3-29-1944, p. 1.

Narrative Information

March 28, Oakland Tribune: “The same pyromaniac who set 11 fires in Oakland Saturday and another one yesterday undoubtedly is responsible also for the New Amsterdam Hotel fire in San Francisco early today which brought death to at least 22 persons and injury to 27 others, according to Fire Marshal Fred Carlson of Oakland.

 

“The San Francisco hotel fire at Fourth and Clementina Streets, among the worst in California history, was one of a series in that city.  Fire Marshal Frank Kelly said there was no doubt it had been set deliberately. He ordered a police guard placed over one man who was injured in the blaze, as an arson suspect. The man, William Bernoff, 33, called for medical treatment at the Palace Hotel, four blocks from the New Amsterdam, an hour and a quarter after the first of four alarms was rung in. He was treated at a hospital for abrasions of the knees and face burns.

 

“Oakland police, meanwhile, searched for a man reportedly seen at three of the incendiary fires in this city who was observed this morning watching fire department investigators at the Hotel Cortez, 812 Washington Street, scene of a fire Saturday. He fled when he noticed the investigators had spotted him and was trailed to the St. Julian Hotel at 12th and Jefferson Streets. He eluded his pursuers there….

 

“While firemen searched ruins of the San Francisco hotel for other bodies, the police department began intensive investigation.  A squad of 20 detectives was assigned to assist the general work

detail and the homicide squad in locating arson suspects. They were to warn proprietors of all lodging houses in the district to report any suspicious persons or activities….

 

“Carlson said the methods employed in both the Oakland and San Francisco fires are identical. In every instance they have been set in closets, bathrooms or lavatories in hotels or rooming houses.  The blaze that destroyed the New Amsterdam was the last of six that sent San Francisco fire officials scurrying into the district last night.  Charred remnants of paper were found under the rear stairs of the hotel.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Oakland Firebug Set Blaze that Killed 22, Says Official.” 3-28-1944, p.1.)

 

March 29, Oakland Tribune: “….Fourteen of the San Francisco dead still are unidentified 24 hours after the smoking embers of the New Amsterdam Hotel cooled, and authorities admitted that positive identification might never be possible.”  (Oakland Tribune, CA. “Police Alert for Firebug; Blaze Nipped.” 3-29-1944, p. 1.)

 

Aug 4, Hayward Review, CA: “San Francisco, (UP) – Geo. Holman, 49 year old negro café owner, today stood convicted on 22 counts of murder as the pyromaniac who set the New Amsterdam Hotel fire that claimed 22 lives last March 27, in San Francisco’s worst disaster since the 1906 earthquake and fire.  A superior court jury of seven men and five women returned the multiple conviction late last night after deliberating for 7½ hours, and recommended that Judge E. P. Murphy sentence Holman to life imprisonment, Holman, upon hearing the verdict, exclaimed:  “No mailer what anybody else thinks, God knows I’m not guilty.”

 

“The New Amsterdam holocaust, which injured 27 people in addition to the 22 dead, flashed through a three-story frame building in San Francisco’s “south of Market” skid row district at midnight, trapping many of the hotel’s occupants in their rooms.” (Hayward Review, CA. “Holman Convicted for Murder of 22.” 8-4-1944, p. 1.)

 

Sources

 

Hayward Review, CA. “Holman Convicted for Murder of 22.” 8-4-1944, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=47162682&sterm=new+amsterdam

 

Lotchin, Roger W. The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=dfTtsjHhaF0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

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.)

 

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Oakland Firebug Set Blaze that Killed 22, Says Official.” 3-28-1944, 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=33458424&sterm=new+amsterdam

 

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Police Alert for Firebug; Blaze Nipped.” 3-29-1944, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=33458444&sterm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Dates the fire March 27, when it was the 28th. Have not been able to locate another source using more than 22 fatalities, though we went through newspaper archives until the arson trial verdict was announced in early August.