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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

The Winecoff Hotel fire was one of the deadliest fires in United States History. It killed 119 people, including the hotel owner, and wounded hundreds. Among the victims, there were thirty of Georgia’s most promising high school students, who had come to Atlanta to attend the YMCA’s Youth Assembly at the Capitol. Winecoff Hotel is located at 176 Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, and now it is known as the Ellis Hotel.

Winecoff Hotel was advertised as ‘fireproof’ because it was built on a steel structure, but the interiors were combustible. The building had no fire escapes, fire doors, or sprinklers. On the night of the incident, the flames erupted from the third floor, where a mattress and chair had been temporarily placed in the corridor, close to the stairway to the fourth floor. The fire was first noticed around 3:15 am by a bellboy. After half an hour the Atlanta firefighters were battling with the fire in cold weather to save the people. But due to lack of resources, they couldn’t save many lives. Their ladders reached only to the eighth floor, and their nets were not strong enough to withstand jumps of more than 70 feet. Many guests died on the sidewalks and in the alley behind the building. Doors and transoms were burned through on all but the fourteenth and fifteenth floors. An investigation later revealed that an open transom was closely associated with a given guest room’s ignition and contents.

24-year-old Tech student and photographer Arnold Hardy was residing near the incident side, upon hearing the sirens he rushed to the spot. He was the first photographer to document the incident. Hardy captured the fall of Daisy McCumber from building with his last flashbulb, for which he won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

#1 Daisy McCumber, falls after jumping from a window. She survived, with serious injuries.

Daisy McCumber, falls after jumping from a window. She survived, with serious injuries.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#2 Winecoff Hotel burned and Firefighters struggling against the flames in Atlanta September 12, 1946.

Winecoff Hotel burned and Firefighters struggling against the flames in Atlanta September 12, 1946.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#3 A- The dead body of an unidentified woman lies on the window sill of her room in the Winecoff Hotel, Atlanta, after fire swept the hotel

A- The dead body of an unidentified woman lies on the window sill of her room in the Winecoff Hotel, Atlanta, after fire swept the hotel

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#4 Volunteer rescue workers carry a victim from the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta.

Volunteer rescue workers carry a victim from the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#5 A newspaper headline.

A newspaper headline.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#6 Shoruded bodies of dead victims of the Winecoff Hotel fire lie on the floor in the morgue at Grady Hospital.

Shoruded bodies of dead victims of the Winecoff Hotel fire lie on the floor in the morgue at Grady Hospital.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#7 Volunteer rescue workers carry a victim from the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta.

Volunteer rescue workers carry a victim from the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#8 Searing flames burst from the windows of the Winecoff Hotel at the height of the fire that gutted the building

Searing flames burst from the windows of the Winecoff Hotel at the height of the fire that gutted the building

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#9 A fire at the Winecoff Hotel.

A fire at the Winecoff Hotel.

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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#10 Fire at Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta on December 1946

Fire at Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta on December 1946

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Winecoff Hotel Fire: The Deadliest Hotel Fire in Atlanta Which killed 119 People

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Written by Benjamin Grayson

Former Bouquet seller now making a go with blogging and graphic designing. I love creating & composing history articles and lists.

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  1. The Winecoff fire is not just the deadliest hotel fire in Atlanta. It is the fatal hotel fire in the United States. My neighbour in the town where I grew up lost their 16-year-old daughter in the fire. One of the children of the family’s other daughter, whose mother was a mercenary, would charge kids 50* for sneaking into his grandparents’ house to see the dead girl’s coat, which his grandmother kept in a plastic garment bag upstairs. She wore the coat she got for her birthday on the Atlanta trip. It had been around 20 years when I paid my 50¢ (which today would be about $5) to see the coat, and you could still smell the smoke from the fire when he unzipped the bag. The family buried his grandmother’s coat in her coffin in 1994, and even after 48 years, when you approached the coffin, you could not help but notice the faint smell of smoke.