1963 — Nov 18, Fire, Surfside Hotel (winter-months elderly home), Atlantic City, NJ — 25
— 25 Altoona Mirror, PA. “Death Toll in Hotel Blaze Climbs to 25.” 11-19-1963, p. 1.
— 25 Hellmann, Paul T. Historical Gazetteer of the United States. NY: Routledge, 2004, 715.
— 25 Juillerat, Ernest E. “Atlantic City Hotel Fire.” NFPA Quarterly, V57, N3, Jan 1964, p. 224.
— 25 NFPA. Summary of Fire Incidents 1934-2006 in Hotel Fires in the United States. 2008.
— 25 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. 1999, p. 6.
— 25 Ward, Neale. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames…,” Firehouse, March 1978, p. 41.
Narrative Information
Juillerat/NFPA: “Twenty-five guests lost their lives when the Surfside Hotel burned in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the early morning hours of Monday, November 18, 1963. The old 5-story wooden hotel was a nightmare of fire protection inadequacies, although licensed and approved for occupancy since it met existing state safety laws applying to hotels. A partial detection system did not operate until the entire building was almost untenable. There was no enclosed stairway for a safe exit. The guests were old and did not respond quickly in emergencies. The few minutes allowed for their escape passed quickly. Thus, only six of the 31 guests in the hotel escaped.
The Hotel District
“Although the approximately 20-block hotel district of Atlantic City contains many fire-resistive hotels, there are also a great number of hotel buildings that pose a conflagration threat…
“At the turn of the century, the area in which the Surfside stood was one of the most fashionable in the resort city. As the area grew older, the buildings were taken over as moderate to low price resort hotels, and additional rooms and wings were added to boost income. The buildings range generally from four to six stories and are jammed together with an average of from five to eight feet between them…Forth per cent are wooden. The city housing authority found that 62 per cent of the 373 buildings in the area, which is under study for urban redevelopment, contained structural deficiencies….
The Surfside Hotel
“The unsprinklered, approximately 140-foot by 65-foot, 5 story wooden Surfside Hotel stood on Maryland Avenue, about 300 feet from the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. The building was between 60 and 70 years old and operated year-round, serving as a residence hotel for elderly people during the off season. The other hotels in the block were closed for the winter….
“…Outside iron fire escapes were at each side….A battery-operated, rate-of-rise fire detection system was installed in compliance with the minimum state requirements which provided…only partial coverage. The single alarm gong was at the center of the main corridor in the fourth story….
“On the night of November 17-18, thirty-one guests between the ages of 63 and 88 slept in their rooms in the Surfside Hotel. Fourteen were on the third floor, 13 on the fourth and 4 on the fifth floor. Two employees were sleeping in their rooms on the first floor. The manager, the manager’s wife, her parents, and the manager’s three sons were sleeping in their second floor apartment. A third employee, who doubled as night clerk and handy man, was in the lobby….
The Fire
“Probably no more than ten minutes passed between the time that occupants first smelled smoke and when the entire interior was in flames. A woman in the third story telephoned the night man and told him there was smoke upstairs. The night man also smelled smoke, and at about the same time, another woman in the third story yelled down to him and said the third story was full of smoke. The night man told them he would be right up. He telephoned the fire department immediately. The telephoned alarm was recorded at 4:21 A.M. on November 18. At the same time he telephoned the fire department, he connected the switchboard to the manager’s apartment phone. The manager’s wife answered and took the message simultaneously with the fire department.
“The night man then got on the elevator. The elevator was filling with smoke, and when he arrived at the third story, the smoke was so thick he could not see well enough to know exactly where to stop the elevator. He stopped slightly below the floor level and tripped getting off. Several woman and a man were near the elevator, and he pulled two women onto the elevator and tried to reach the man, but the man disappeared into the smoke. The night man took the elevator down to the ground floor and led the two women outside. When he tried to get back into the building, he was kept out by heat and smoke.
“Meanwhile, the manager and his family barely had time to dress partially before escaping….
“The two employees who were asleep in their rooms at the rear of the first story when the fire started were awakened by the commotion and ran out of the building. There was no fire in the first story at this time, which leads investigators to believe that the blaze started in the second-story kitchen. The cries of the 24 guests who were trapped chilled the hearts of the would-be rescuers, but there was no hope.[1] The entire building was ablaze with flames shooting high into the air. The five-story, wooden structure was leveled within 30 minutes after the fire was discovered….
“There are hundreds of firetraps left to burn in Atlantic City and adjoining communities. Another summer will come and thousands of unsuspecting vacationers will fill them. Officials have promised more rigid inspections. But how much will an inspection add to the time a guest has to flee down an open stairway in an unsprinklered hotel charged with smoke?” (Juillerat. “Atlantic City Hotel Fire.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 57, No. 3, January 1964, pp. 224-231.)
Newspapers
Nov 18: “Firemen battled an early morning fire in Atlantic City which took the toll of five hotels and a rooming house while damaging several others. There was no immediate report on the number of deaths but police said 26 persons were unaccounted for in the Surfside Hotel, where the fire started.” (Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, PA. “Early Morning Blaze.” 11-18-1963, 4.)
Nov 19: “Atlantic City, N.J. (UPI) – Search resumes today for the remaining 16 victims of Monday’s pre-dawn fire here which killed 25 elderly guests of a residence for the aged. Seven bodies and part of an eighth already have been removed from the smoldering debris of the tragic fire and another person died in a hospital room from injuries.
“Det. Capt. Albert Wilson, in charge of search operations, called off the hunt late Monday night because the rubble of the Surfside Hotel, where the victims were trapped, was “too hot in the center, too smoky and it was too dark.” A three-man FBI team has arrived here to help identity the bodies, which may prove difficult if not impossible in some cases.
“The spreading fire, with flames that soared 200 feet destroyed four other hotels and damaged four additional guest houses which housed no residents other than token maintenance staffs.
“Milton Rauer, 48, the owner of the Surfside, six of his relatives, eight guests and three employes made their way out safely through the billowing smoke and flames shortly after the flames erupted about 4:30 a.m. (EST).
“Fifty-six pieces of fire equipment and more than 450 firefighters including those from nearby communities battled the flames but for the most part all they could do was watch helplessly while the 60-year-old frame building was leveled.
“City Commissioner Meredith Kerstetter, director of public safely in charge of police and fire operations said Monday that the Surfside “was routinely inspected in June and that it measured up to fire safety regulations. However the fire department will be alerted to continue a thorough investigation of all buildings.”
“Fire Chief Warren Conover said that at the Surfside “they were as safe as they could get for a frame building. Usually we have been blessed when one of these frame buildings catches fire that somebody sees it, now that the vacation season is over and not so many people around, well… ”
“Atlantic City, a jammed seaside resort area in the summer has the second largest ratio of elderly population in the United States next to St. Petersburg, Fla.
“Rauer said later the fire was “a quick, sudden thing — a blast of flame. The night man smelled smoke, awakened me, and called firemen and police. “By then, everything was a mass of flames. We jumped to safety from a back window of the first floor.”
“Mrs. Minnie Dackman, 65, a guest of the Surfside which catered mostly to elderly Jewish people, crawled to safety through a second floor window and was helped to the street by a fireman….
“One hero of the tragedy was the night watchman, Philip Johnson, 24, who rescued four persons. “I found a few people in the hallway groping for safety,” he said. “I grabbed them. There were four women and a man. I tried to pull them all into an elevator. “But the man — I don’t know who he was, the smoke was too thick — ran away from me. He ran right into the thick part of the smoke…”
“Police Capt. James Dooney and Patrolman Ace Godowski among the first to reach the scene opened the lobby door of the hotel and faced a wall of flame. “Nothing appeared amiss until we opened that door.” Dooney said. “We heard hollering inside and know there were people in there, but we didn’t know how many,” he said. He rescued one person from the lobby, and Godowski helped four persons escape through the rear of the building.
“An estimated $500,— damage was caused by the fire which spread from the Surfside to the Stratmore Hotel – leveling it – and to the four-story Nixon Hotel. Next in line – the three-story Leonard Hotel and the Breyer guest house were destroyed.
“At the frame Imperial Hotel, which also was gutted, the owner, Karl Heiden, and seven employes awoke in time to escape the flames.
“The only person reported hospitalized was Anna Shallit, 65, of Morristown, N.J., who died later at Atlantic City Hospital….
“The other hotels damaged in the fire were the Hollywood, Virginia and Palm Hall.” (Altoona Mirror, PA. “Death Toll in Hotel Blaze Climbs to 25.” 11-19-1963, pp. 1 and 3.)
Nov 20: “Atlantic City, N.J. – (UPI) — Police today hunted a convicted arsonist who was seen near the Surfside Hotel less than an hour after fire flashed through the building and killed 25 elderly persons.” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Very Latest Bulletins.” 11-20-1963, p. 1.)
Nov 21: “Atlantic City, N.J. (UPI)…. a known arson suspect was cleared of any suspicion in the Surfside Hotel fire which killed 25 elderly persons last Monday….” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Arsonist Sought in Another Serious A.C. Fire.” 11-21-1963, p. 14.)
Dec 12: “Two recent fires, the November 23 tragedy in Fitchville, 0., that cost 63 lives and the Surfside Hotel fire in Atlantic City .November 18 that took 24 [25] lives were cited by the National Fire Protection Association as examples of failure to provide adequate safeguards for the elderly. Percy Bugbee, general manager of the NFPA, said that homes for the aged are first on the list of unsafe places to live. Obvious firetraps must be converted into safe places for old people to live. They should not have to spend their last years under the continuous threat of death by fire.” (Lawton Constitution, OK. “Fires and Elderly.” 12-12-1963, p. 10.)
June 20, 1964: “Atlantic City, N.J. (AP) — Police arrested Saturday-night [June 20] a man they said confessed to setting fire at the Surfside Hotel last November that claimed 25 lives. Detective Capt. Albert Wilson, head of the major crimes squad, identified the suspect as Thomas G. Mack, 26, of Ventnor. Wilson said Mack would be charged with arson, homicide and malicious mischief. Wilson said he received a call from two policemen summoning him to a fire at an unoccupied hotel. When Wilson arrived, a witness told police he saw Mack, who was standing in a crowd of onlookers, set the fires. Under questioning, Wilson said, Mack admitted setting the fire at the Surfside Hotel.” (San Antonio Express-News, TX. “Man Admits Hotel Arson.” 6-21-1964, p.12A.)
June 22, 1964: “Atlantic City, N.J. – (AP) – The fire that roared through the Surfside Hotel and snuffed out 25 lives last November, has been called by police the work of a 26-year-old former mental patient. The accused man, Thomas G. Mack of Ventnor, led police Sunday through a reenactment of the morning of Nov. 18, when the Surfside Hotel erupted in flames that trapped most of the elderly Jewish guests staying there and also spread to nine other buildings. Mack also has admitted setting six other minor fires in Atlantic City, police said. He reportedly said that he liked to see fire.
“Mack, a laborer, was confined for three months in 1959 as a mental patient at the Public Health Hospital in Staten Island, N.Y., police said. Mack stated that he poured gasoline into a rotted section of the Surfside’s boiler room and dropped a match in it.
“Although 25 persons were declared dead in the disaster, only 15 bodies were recovered, and of these, only two were identified.
“The million-dollar fire also destroyed four other hotels and a rooming house and damaged another four hotels. The Surfside was the only building that had guests at the time. Seventeen persons survived.
“Mack was arrested Saturday night inside the unoccupied Famous Hotel in the inlet section of this resort. Mack admitted being there to set the building on fire.” (Racine Journal-Times, WI. “Blame ex-Mental Patient for Hotel Blaze Fatal to 25.” 6-22-1964, p. 3A.)
June 24, 1964: “Atlantic City, N.J. (UPI)….Thomas Mack, 26, of Ventnor showed police the rear door of the Surfside Hotel which he said he entered shortly after 2 a.m. last November 18 with a bottle of gasoline, according to arson squad Capt. William Rickert. Mack told police he poured the gasoline on the floor, dropped a match in it and then fled with the fire “smoldering,” Rickert said.” (Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Man Confesses to Hotel Fire.” 6-24-1965, p. 17.)
Dec 10, 1964: “Atlantic City, Dec. 10 (AP) – The Atlantic County grand jury did not return an indictment today against Thomas G. Mack, who had been accused of setting a fire that killed 25 persons. Mr. Mack, a 26-year-old former mental patient, had been charged with arson and homicide in the Nov. 18, 1963, fire at the Surfside Hotel. Prosecutor Augustine Repetto said that “the investigation is still open.” Mr. Mack is being held on arson charges stemming from two other fires.” (New York Times. “No Indictment in Hotel Fire.” 12-11-1964.)
Sources
Altoona Mirror, PA. “Death Toll in Hotel Blaze Climbs to 25.” 11-19-1963, p. 1. Accessed 11-13-2014 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=73831488&sterm=surfside
Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Arsonist Sought in Another Serious A.C. Fire.” 11-21-1963, p. 14. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=128952537&sterm
Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Very Latest Bulletins.” 11-20-1963, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=130424406&sterm=surfside
Hellmann, Paul T. Historical Gazetteer of the United States. NY: Routledge, 2005, p. 149. Partially Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=EQ-R4O2L3nEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, PA. “Early Morning Blaze.” 11-18-1963, p. 4. Accessed 11-13-2014 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=113847792&sterm=surfside
Juillerat, Ernest E. “Atlantic City Hotel Fire.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 57, No. 3, January 1964, pp. 224-231.
Lawton Constitution, OK. “Fires and Elderly.” 12-12-1963, p. 10. Accessed 11-13-2014 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=59505031&sterm=fire+atlantic+city
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
Nevada State Journal, Reno. “Man Confesses to Hotel Fire.” 6-24-1965, p. 17. Accessed 11-13-2014 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=17925973&sterm=fire+atlantic
New York Times. “No Indictment in Hotel Fire.” 12-11-1964. Accessed 11-13-2014 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/11/no-indictment-in-hotel-fire.html?_r=0
Racine Journal-Times, WI. “Blame ex-Mental Patient for Hotel Blaze Fatal to 25.” 6-22-1964, p. 3A. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=161008753&sterm=fire+atlantic
San Antonio Express-News, TX. “Man Admits Hotel Arson.” 6-21-1964, p. 12-A. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=67930317&sterm=fire+atlantic+city
Ward, Neale. “Hotel Fires: Landmarks in Flames, History’s Famous Hotel Fires,” Firehouse, March 1978, pp. 40-45.
[1] The 25th victim was a woman who firemen and police found seriously burned on the roof of the dining room, having apparently jumped from a fourth-story window. She died in a hospital from burns and fall injuries.