1946 — Dec 7, Fire, Hotel Winecoff, Atlanta, GA — 119

–120+ Nat. Fire Protect. Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003)
–119 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 334.
–119 Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 123.
–119 Heys and Goodwin. The Winecoff Fire. 1933.
–119 McElroy, James K. “The Hotel Winecoff Disaster.” Quarterly (NFPA), 40/3, Jan 1947.
–119 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
–119 NFPA. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the U.S.. 2008
–119 NFPA. U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates By State.” December 2008, p. 21.
–119 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, p. 2.
–119 University of Texas at Austin, Fire Prevention Services. “Historic Fires.” (website)
–119 USFA. “Hotel and Motel Fires.” Topical Fire Report Series, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Jan 2010.
–119 Ward. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames…,” Firehouse, March 1978, p. 41.

Narrative Information

Country Beautiful: “The Winecoff Hotel was located in the heart of Atlanta’s business district on the corner of Peachtree and Ellis streets. It contained 194 rooms and was well known in the Atlanta area. W. F. Winecoff had built the proud hotel in 1913. He had since retired but resided at the hotel. The building was of supposedly fireproof construction and hence did not have any fire escapes. “Fireproof construction” is a misnomer. The National Board of Fire Underwriters has since discontinued use of the term, supplanting it with the term “fire resistive.” Fireproof merely meant that the framework of a building will remain sound after a fire. It said nothing of the contents…

“The building was fifteen stories tall with the floors numbered consecutively except for the number thir¬teen which was eliminated from the numbering system. The structure was protected by a shielded steel frame, and the roof and floors were of concrete on tile filler. The exterior was composed of twelve-¬inch-thick brick panel and inside partitions were constructed of tile plastered on both sides, insuring structural stability. On the other hand, the walls and corridors were covered with painted burlap from the wood baseboard to the rail, above which they were papered. Corridor floors had wall-to-wall carpet on felt padding. Doors to rooms were of light panel wood, with wood frames and transoms. The rooms were wallpapered, some with as many as five thick¬nesses of wallpaper, and ceilings were painted. While a few of the guest room windows had the luxury of wooden venetian blinds, most of the windows were covered with ordinary cloth draperies. While the building itself was indestructible, apparently little thought had been given to the flammability of the contents, which were not….

“The building design also included many openings, mostly vertical, such as ventilating shafts, to aid in the building’s function to serve its guests and make them comfortable. These openings also had a hidden use: In the event of fire, they would serve as chimneys and fans to draw the oxygen-seeking flames onto all fifteen floors. The Winecoff Hotel was also equipped with open transoms above guest-room doors, and an open stairway, the single means of escape in the event of an emergency.

“The two elevator shafts were centrally located while the single stairway was also in the center of the floor plan. The stairs began on each floor as a single staircase then branched off into opposite directions halfway up, each stairway leading to the two long corridors that ran parallel to each other. Since the elevator shafts were enclosed with fire resistive materials, a fire, should it occur, would probably proceed up the staircase feeding on the burlap, wallpaper and combustible woodwork.

“On the morning of December 7, 1946, the Wine¬coff Hotel was filled nearly to capacity with about three hundred guests on the hotel register. The night crew at the hotel consisted of a night desk clerk, a bellman, a night building engineer, an elevator operator, a night maid and a cleaning woman.

“Shortly after three o’clock the bellman was called to Room 510 to deliver some ice. The night building engineer, whose habit it was to tour the building at intervals to certify that everything was in order, accompanied the bellman to the fifth floor. Both were invited into the room by the hotel guest and they accepted the invitation. At about the same time the night elevator operator took some guests to an upper floor, probably the tenth.

“On her way down, she smelled smoke somewhere between the third and sixth floors and reported it to the night clerk when she reached the lobby. The night clerk then instructed her to go to the fifth floor to locate the engineer and bellman. As she ascended, the night clerk ran up the stairway to the mezzanine where he saw the reflection of flames from the third floor and ran back to the lobby to telephone the fire depart¬ment. He then began to phone individual rooms to warn the guests. The elevator operator was undoubt¬edly shaken by the events and was unable to locate the bellman and engineer. She returned the elevator car to the basement and ran up the stairs to the lobby. The elevator girl later reported that she saw flames as she left the fifth floor. If this is so, the fire was making swift progress up the staircase.

“The fire department responded immediately. The night clerk turned in the alarm by telephone at 3:42, and a fire company only a block away arrived within thirty seconds. Though the fire department arrived with haste, when they arrived the third to fifth floors were engulfed in flames, and guests were already jumping out the windows. Stairways and hallways above the third floor were filled with smoke and choking gases. The fire spread so rapidly due to the natural chimney provided by the open staircase that escape from the upper floors was impossible….

“As people implored rescuers for help from their windows the spectators gathered in the street to watch. People began to lower themselves from one floor to another with tied bed clothing. Many fell to their deaths when the knotted sheets broke or were burned, and some died when they could hold on no longer. Fire fighters placed ladders onto the building, but many could not wait to be rescued and jumped onto the street. Some were saved by the life nets held by firemen, and many were able to climb down the ladders provided. Rescue by ladder was limited to the length of the ladder, but there were ladders that reached the sixth, eighth and tenth floors. Rescue was attempted from window to window and people attempted to lower themselves to the ladder. One man tried to reach a ladder and as he swung down and was suspended, two other people fell onto him from the floors above and all three plunged to their deaths. A fireman was taking a woman down a ladder when another woman fell onto them. The three toppled to the hotel marquee; the two women were killed, the fireman seriously injured.

“After the fire, it was noted that more than half of the rooms had the transoms open above the door. The open windows and open transoms served to draft and fan the fire. The fire companies on the scene turned in three subsequent alarms calling for the entire department; it took three hours to bring the roaring inferno under control and an additional three hours to put it out. Every available piece of equip¬ment was there. Help arrived from the suburbs: some companies to help fight the fire, some to maintain fire protection for the rest of the city.

“Many were burned to death; many jumped; many tried to escape into halls and were overcome by smoke and gas and asphyxiated. One woman was said to have hurled two small children from a window and then leaped to her own death. A man died when he missed the life net by only inches…. One couple crawled along a fourteenth-floor ledge to another couple’s room. When they reached the other couple’s room they stacked mattresses against the door and kept them wet. They survived. The story from a room on the eleventh floor did not end as well. A mother gathered her three chil¬dren in her arms and held them close — all died.

“At 9 a.m. on December 7 the room-to-room search for bodies began. On the outside the Winecoff Hotel was draped with bedsheets and blankets hastily tied and now hanging limp and lifeless from the windows. The walls in many rooms were burned to the tile base. Most doors and window frames were burned. Mirrors were shattered and windows were smashed. There was much evidence of heat in excess of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Light bulbs were fused, the heavy metal elevator doors were twisted, telephones melted. In some rooms only the bedsprings remained; the rest of the furnishings were wholly consumed. Yet the fireproof hotel was still structurally sound.

“It was the worst hotel fire in American history. At its conclusion 119 people died and an additional 91 were injured. Very few people escaped unharmed. Among the dead was W. F. Winecoff, seventy, builder of Atlanta’s famous fireproof hotel….

“Modern building laws require two safe, readily accessible exits from every corridor, public space or service area. The Winecoff Hotel had only one principle means of escape — the open stairway….Still the Winecoff Hotel was allowed to stand, without a single fire escape. After the fire, city authorities expressed amazement that the hotel pro¬vided no emergency means of exit. It was reported that the hotel had recently been inspected by the fire marshal and had measured up to safety standards. Governor Ellis Arnall wanted a full investigation of the disaster. He said, “This is a great tragedy. The public is being defrauded when a hotel is advertised as `fireproof’ but really isn’t. Responsible agencies should prohibit the use of the word ‘fireproof’ when a hotel is not really fireproof as the Winecoff obviously was not”.” (Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. 1973, pp. 116-123.)

McElroy/NFPA: “The loss of 119 lives and the injury of 90 persons as the result of fire in the Hotel Winecoff in the early morning hours of December 7, 1946, is essentially the effect of over-confidence in a type of structure for a great many years commonly and erroneously described as ‘fireproof’ by many engineers and believed to be so by the public.

“The shock of the Winecoff disaster, while greatest to the loved ones of the dead and injured and the hotel management, was no less a shock to architects and engineers who have designed, built and periodically inspected the Hotel Winecoff and other so-called ‘fireproof’ buildings. In this case there were clues to the impending disaster in the record of the Hotel LaSalle fire in June 1946, which also involved unprotected vertical openings, delayed detection of fire and delayed alarm to the fire department.

“The screams of the Winecoff’s occupants and the dull thud of bodies hurtling to Peachtree and Ellis streets should eliminate for all time the illusion that this and other buildings, classified as ‘fireproof’ in fire insurance rating schedules and many building codes, are secure against all perils to life safety without adequate safeguards for combustible interior finish and contents.

“The lessons to be found in the ruins of the Hotel Winecoff are the focal point of international attention by hotel owners and managers, architects and builders, building and fire department officials, fire prevention and casualty engineers; fire, casualty, and life insurance companies; manufacturers of fire protection equipment; legal authorities and the public, immediately concerned with the prevention of loss of life from fire causes throughout the world.

“Mr. Marvin Harper, for the past year Chief Building Inspector for the Atlanta Departments of Buildings, stated following his careful examination of the structure after the fire on December 7 that the building did not deviate in any major respect from the requirements of the 1911 Atlanta Building Code. Except for minor improvements too slight to require compliance with the provisions of a new building code, adopted on December 7, 1923, and subsequently amended by ordinance, the building at the time of the fire was essentially in the same condition structurally as it was on the day in hospitably opened its doors in 1913….” (McElroy, James K. “The Hotel Winecoff Disaster.” The Quarterly (Nat. Fire Protection Assoc.), Vol. 40, No. 3, Jan 1947, p. 140.)

University of Texas at Austin: “Winecoff Hotel Fire December 7, 1946.
“The Winecoff Hotel Fire occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1946. After beginning early in the morning, the fire quickly spread through the building, trapping people in the upper floors, and causing many to jump out of windows to their deaths. There were 119 fatalities, making this the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

“Escape from the upper floors was difficult because the building only had one exit stairway, which became impassable during the early stages of the fire. The fire spread quickly through that stairwell because many of its doors had been propped open, and there was no fire sprinkler system to stifle the flames throughout the building. In addition, the building did not have a fire alarm to notify people of the emergency as soon as the flames began.” (University of Texas at Austin, Fire Prevention Services. “Historic Fires.”)

USFA: “On December 7, 1946, fire broke out in the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, GA. The early morning fire spread quickly through the building, trapping many people in the upper floors. With only one exit stairway (that, unfortunately, provided a conduit for the fire as many of its doors had been propped open), no fire alarm system, and no fire sprinkler system, the 119 fatalities from this fire made it the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, and prompted many changes in building codes.” (USFA. “Hotel and Motel Fires.” Topical Fire Report Series, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Jan 2010, p. 1.)

Newspapers:

Dec 7, AP: “Atlanta, Dec. 7 (AP) – A mysterious pre-dawn fire which started in the upper floors today turned the 15-story Winecoff Hotel in downtown Atlanta into a roaring inferno, killing at least 114 persons and injuring another 100. Several hours after the fire was brought under control at 7 a.m., firemen said they believed all bodies had been removed from the 194-room building…

“Many of the guests leaped to their deaths from the flaming structure….Police Chief M.A. Hornsby said that ‘at least 25 or 30 persons were killed by leaping from windows.’….Others were burned fatally or suffocated. A check of the building showed many rooms untouched by flames, but others were charred. Firemen expressed the belief that many lives would have been saved had guests remained in these un-touched rooms….Bodies were found on every floor above the third. Many not in the direct path of the flames suffocated in their rooms….

“The hotel was built in 1913, and had no outside fire escapes. It was classed as fire resistant.” (Oakland Tribune, CA. “114 Die, 100 Injured in Hotel Fire Horror,” December 7, 1946, p. 1)

Dec 7, Berkshire Evening Eagle: There were a reported 285 guests in the hotel at the time. (Berkshire Evening Eagle (MA), “Worst Hotel Fire Kills 114,” December 7, 1946, p. 1)

Sources

Berkshire Evening Eagle, Pittsfield, MA. “Worst Hotel Fire Kills 114,” December 7, 1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=2554259

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. Waukesha, WI: Country Beautiful, 1973.

Heys, Sam, and Allen B. Goodwin. The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America’s Deadliest Hotel Fire. Atlanta, GA: Longstreet Press, 1933.

McElroy, James K. “The Hotel Winecoff Disaster.” The Quarterly (National Fire Protection Association), Vol. 40, No. 3, Jan 1947, 21 p. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Research/Winecoff.pdf

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

National Fire Protection Association (John Hall, Jr.). U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 31 pages, December 2008.

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf

Oakland Tribune, CA. “114 Die, 100 Injured in Hotel Fire Horror.” 12-7-1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=32439433

United States Fire Administration. “Hotel and Motel Fires.” Topical Fire Report Series, Vol. 10, Issue 4, Jan 2010. Emmitsburg, MD: National Fire Data Center, USFA, FEMA, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Accessed 5-18-2016 at: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v10i4.pdf

University of Texas at Austin, Fire Prevention Services. “Historic Fires.” Website accessed 5-14-2013 at: http://www.utexas.edu/safety/fire/safety/historic_fires.html

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