Atlanta's Winecoff Hotel disaster changed fire safety
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The Winecoff Hotel fire. Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
The reason why your hotel room has a sprinkler system and plenty of exits has its roots in a fire on Peachtree Street.
Why it matters: The Winecoff Hotel fire claimed the lives of 119 people, making it the deadliest hotel blaze in U.S. history.
- The disaster, along with hotel blazes that same year in Illinois and Iowa, led to changes to fire codes across the country.
Catch up quick: Not long before dawn on Dec. 7, 1946, Atlanta firefighters responded to the Winecoff to extinguish a fire consuming the building.
- For more than two hours, crews attempted to reach and rescue roughly 280 guests in the 15-story building.
Zoom in: The steel-framed hotel claimed to be "absolutely fireproof" but had no fire escapes or sprinklers, according to Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin's authoritative book about the disaster.
- The crew's ladders could not reach past the eighth floor of the hotel, and the firefighters' rescue nets could not accommodate people falling from higher than 70 feet, according to the Georgia Historical Society.
- The hotel's delayed call for help contributed to the fire's spread. Guests jumped from upper floors, tied together bedsheets to climb down or attempted to reach adjacent buildings to escape the flames.
Victims included high school students visiting town to attend the YMCA's Youth Assembly at the Georgia Capitol and the hotel's original developer and his wife who lived in an upper-floor suite.
The intrigue: The fire's cause is disputed. Possibilities have included a dropped cigarette or arson associated with a card game in the hotel.
The big picture: The disaster made national news and prompted cities to update their fire codes.
- After sitting vacant for years, the Winecoff reopened in 2007 — with plenty of safety upgrades — as the Ellis Hotel.