1963 — Dec 29, Fire, Hotel Roosevelt, Jacksonville, FL — 22

–22 Marbut. “50 years ago: Judge absolves city of liability in deadly Roosevelt Hotel Fire.”
–22 NFPA. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the United States. 2008.
–22 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts, 1999, p. 6.
–22 Panama City Herald, FL. “Hotel Fire Toll Reaches 22 Dead.” 12-31-1963, p. 1.
–22 Shirk, Charlene. “40th Anniversary of Hotel Roosevelt Fire,” First Coast News, 12-29-2003
–22 Ward, Neale. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames…,” Firehouse, March 1978, p. 41.
–22 Wikipedia. “Hotel Roosevelt Fire.”

Narrative Information

Dec 30: “Jacksonville (AP) — Ashes and blackened debris in the Hotel Roosevelt’s once grand ballroom held the secret today to the cause of a fire which left 21 dead and 66 injured. Flames burst out Sunday morning [Dec 29] in or around the main floor ballroom, spewing heavy smoke and deadly gases upward through the 12-story, 300-room hotel, packed with nearly 500 Gator Bowl weekend guests. Nineteen victims were asphyxiated by smoke and fumes.

“Sudden disaster struck on a brisk, calm Sunday morning, handing Jacksonville its worst tragedy in history. One woman died in a plunge from an upper story window. An assistant fire chief died of a heart attack. Only the cool efficiency of firemen and dramatic rescues by Navy helicopters of guests who fled to the roof averted a worse tragedy.

“The fashionable hotel on Adams Street near Main Street was packed with 472 guests, many here for Gator Bowl week festivities which ended Saturday night.

“Most deaths occurred above the eighth floor, agonizingly out of reach of the city’s two 100-foot aerial ladder trucks.

“Among those rescued were Miss America of 1964, Donna Axum of El Dorado, Ark. The 21-year-old beauty and her chaperone, Lucile Previti, were hospitalized overnight, suffering with smoke inhalation.

“Business executives were among the dead. They included James Jackson Swick, 59, owner-president of Copeland Sausage Co. His wife, Lorena Eaker (Rena) Swick, 47, also was killed. The Swicks, of Alachua, Fla., stayed in town after attending the Gator Bowl football game.

“Another executive among the dead was Wade Hildinger of Buffalo, N.Y., vice president for sales of National Gypsum Co….
Roosevelt Fire Victims Listed

“Jacksonville (UPI) – A list of the dead in the Roosevelt Hotel fire:

1. R. A. Patrick, Macon, Ga.
2. Max Kahn. Jr.,…Atlanta.
3. Mrs. Max Kahn, Jr.,…Atlanta.
4. Walter E. Dupree…Atlanta.
5. William G. Carpenter. Orlando.
6. Mrs. William G. Carpenter…Orlando.
7. James Romedy, Assistant Fire Chief, Jacksonville.
8. John Hill Jr….East Point, Ga.
9. W. H. McLemore, Vidalia, Ga.
10. Mrs. Bess Robertson, Gadsden, Ala.
11. Jim Swick, Alachua.
12. Mrs. Rena Swick, Alachua.
13. W. W. Hildinger, Buffalo, N.Y.
14. J. C. Cohen…Atlanta.
15. Mrs. J. C. Cohen…Atlanta.
16. Mrs. Marion F. Curry, Greensboro, N.C.
17. Murray Sherman, Jacksonville, Fla.
18. Mrs. Murray Sherman, Jacksonville – The Shermans were residents of the hotel.
19. Paul Arant, Pageland, S.C.
20. Ida C. Fish…New York.
21. Sadie Citren…New York.”

(Panama City Herald, FL. “Ashes Hold Secret to Cause of Fire.” 12-30-1963, p. 1.)

Dec 31: “Jacksonville (UPI) – An Atlanta woman died today, raising to 22 the toll in the Roosevelt Hotel fire. Mrs. Josephine DuPre, 35, whose husband died in the blaze Sunday, was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital at 4:45 a.m. She had been in critical condition since being rescued from the smoking building. Mrs. DuPre was the ninth Georgian to die as a result of the fire which injured 59 other persons.

“Investigators went on with inspections and questioning of employes in the smoke-blackened 13-story structure but still were not ready to announce their theory of what caused the fire. City Fire Marshal E. C. McDermon said the search for the cause “is taking a definite trend, but we’re not ready to announce anything yet.” Among the investigators, McDermon said, were experts “who know as much about it as anybody in the country…Anyone of them could almost give you the cause. But we don’t want to say until we are sure.” He emphasized, however, that there was no suspicion “that anything was wrong.”” (Panama City Herald, FL. “Atlanta Woman Dies. Hotel Fire Toll Reaches 22 Dead.” 12-31-1963, p. 1.)

Jan 1, 1964: “The fire at the Roosevelt Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, never got above the first floor. Yet reportedly 20 of the 22 persons who lost their lives died from smoke inhalation in rooms on the upper floors of the hotel. Pictures showing smoke pouring from windows of rooms on the top floors, when the fire was all far below, seemed incongruous. Smoke and lethal fumes can easily rise through open stairwells or elevator shafts in a hotel, filling corridors. But it should not spread thickly through closed doors into rooms. Yet it did — even filling bathrooms into which some victims fled.

“How could this happen?

“The full story is not yet known, but Fire Chief Cromartie of Jacksonville is quoted as saying smoke was spread through a number of vertical service shafts housing pipes and wiring. Police Inspector Allen said smoke poured into the rooms through the hotel’s air conditioning ducts. Here was apparently a built-in death warrant for those on the top floors of the hotel. People who should have been safe in their rooms died because lethal fumes were funneled into their rooms by part of the hotel’s very structure.

“According to Salt Lake City Assistant Fire Chief Kresser, relatively simple devices can be built into air conditioning ducts to close dampers and shut off fans when heat rises or smoke is present. Utility service shafts can be so designed as to impede the spread of smoke.

“The Roosevelt Hotel fire revealed an unusual hazard associated with hotels or other tall structures such as office buildings. The tragedy should be a warning to fire marshals and operators of such structures elsewhere in the nation, including Salt Lake City.” (Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Built-in Death [Editorial].” 1-1-1964, p. 20.)

Marbut, 2016: “The city and its fire department were cleared of liability in nearly 40 lawsuits seeking $10 million in damages connected to the 1963 fire at the Roosevelt Hotel in which 22 people died. The ruling by Circuit Judge Marion Gooding left Hotel Roosevelt Inc. and its fire insurer, U.S. Fidelity and Guarantee Co., as the targets for damage claims in the fire.

“The hotel’s position was the city and the insurance company should have been responsible for paying judgments since both inspected the hotel for fire hazards. Any recommendations made by the city and fire department concerning safety issues had been followed by management, hotel officials said. While denying negligence on its part, the hotel said if there were a court determination of negligence, the insurer and the city should be financially responsible for what it said was their failure to notify the hotel of any hazardous conditions. Additionally, the hotel said during the pre-dawn fire, city employees turned off the main power switch supplying electricity to the hotel, plunging it into darkness and impeding efforts of firefighters to locate and evacuate guests.

“After hearing more than four hours of arguments, Gooding ruled the city could not be held liable for the type of negligence alleged. He withheld final ruling on the hotel’s plea to hold the insurance company liable for money damages resulting from a possible finding of negligence….

“After a fire started in the hotel’s ballroom, smoke seeped up through the building. Smoke inhalation was determined to be the cause of 20 deaths, one guest was killed in a fall while attempting to escape the building and an assistant fire chief died of a heart attack while fighting the fire.

“Gooding tentatively set Sept. 12 to begin trials for the lawsuits.” (Marbut, Max (Associate Editor). “50 years ago: Judge absolves city of liability in deadly Roosevelt Hotel Fire.” Jacksonville Daily Record, FL. 5-9-2016.)

Wikipedia: “The Hotel Roosevelt fire, on December 29, 1963, was the worst fire Jacksonville, Florida had seen since the Great Fire of 1901, and it contributed to the worst one-day death toll in the city’s history. Twenty-two people died, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning.

“The Hotel Roosevelt was, at the time, one of only two luxury hotels in the city’s downtown, with many restaurants and businesses located on its ground floor, including a ballroom and a barber shop. At the year’s end, the Hotel Roosevelt hosted hundreds of travelers who came to attend the Gator Bowl.

“The fire was said to be started after a cigarette was left unattended in the ground-floor ballroom after a Gator Bowl celebration, but was in reality started in the ballroom’s ceiling. The old ceiling, which was deemed a fire hazard, was not removed when the new ceiling was installed, providing kindling for the fire, which started from faulty wires.

“The first calls to the Jacksonville Fire Department were made at 7:30 a.m. Smoke was traveling throughout the 13-story building, and hotel visitors climbed out of the smoky building with the help of other patrons and bedsheets tied together. Mayor W. Haydon Burns immediately called for assistance from the U.S. Navy, and eight helicopters were flown to downtown from Cecil Field and NAS Jacksonville. The airmen helped the patrons out of the building, and transported them to a nearby parking lot, where ambulances were already waiting.

“The fire was extinguished by 9:30 a.m., and it was estimated that nearly 475 people were saved from the burning building. After a day of recovering the dead, firefighters found 21 residents dead in their beds from smoke inhalation. In addition, assistant chief J.R. Romedy collapsed of a heart attack during the initial rescue efforts, and died at the scene.

“Property damage to the Hotel Roosevelt was immense, and the hotel was closed in 1964, with most of the hotel’s businesses and staff relocating to the equally upscale Hotel George Washington. After much renovation, the building was re-opened as a retirement home, the Jacksonville Regency House, which closed in 1989.

“The former Hotel Roosevelt, located on Adams Street in downtown, is still standing. The building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in February 1991. Memorials are still held to remember those who died in the fire (the most recent gathering occurred in December 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the blaze).

“The building was renovated in recent years and is now known as The Carling, an upscale apartment residence.” (Wikipedia. Hotel Roosevelt Fire.)

Sources

Marbut, Max (Associate Editor). “50 years ago: Judge absolves city of liability in deadly Roosevelt Hotel Fire.” Jacksonville Daily Record, FL. 5-9-2016. Accessed 2-16-2020 at: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/50-years-ago-judge-absolves-city-liability-deadly-roosevelt-hotel-fire

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 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

Panama City Herald, FL. “Ashes Hold Secret to Cause of Fire.” 12-30-1963, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35360125&sterm=hotel+roosevelt+fire

Panama City Herald, FL. “Atlanta Woman Dies. Hotel Fire Toll Reaches 22 Dead.” 12-31-1963, p. 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=35360138&sterm=hotel

Salt Lake Tribune, UT. “Built-in Death [Editorial].” 1-1-1964, p. 20. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=91402524&sterm=hotel+roosevelt+fire

Shirk, Charlene. “40th Anniversary of Hotel Roosevelt Fire”, First Coast News, Dec 29, 2003. Accessed at: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=12650

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

Wikipedia. “Hotel Roosevelt Fire.” 1-19-2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Roosevelt_fire