WEBVTT - Why There Aren't So Many Hotel Fires Anymore 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.880 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.200 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.239 The gang's all here, which means that it's time for 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.919 stuff you should know, So settle down, everybody be quiet. Yeah, 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.560 the hotel fire edition, which will not be chuck full 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:35.320 of laughs probably No, No, I really won't. Um. I 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.840 don't know what it is about hotel fires that always 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.360 fascinated me, but they did. I think it was the 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.280 MGM Grand fire that got me. Um. Yeah, but there's 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:50.200 just something extra creepy about a hotel fire to me. Um. 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.400 And it turns out that there are there have been 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:57.040 some some big ones and some bad ones, and in 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.440 this one particular year, and of them happened that America 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.280 finally got off it stuff and started doing something about it. Yeah. 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.160 And also while reading this, I was I was kind 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:13.080 of thinking, like, why weren't there a dozen more of 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.800 these that year or in any surrounding year when you 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.560 look at how uh well, how unsafe things were, and 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.400 how you know, I know, people complain about the government 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.240 regulating things, but yeah, sometimes it's nice to say you 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.000 should have fire sprinklers and fire alarms or you can't 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:37.240 do business. Yeah, that's a really good point, and this 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.640 is a great example of that. You're right. It's also 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.520 a great example of how people smoking can used to 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.559 be able to just kill dozens or scores of people 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.720 by falling asleep with a cigarette or tossing it somewhere 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:51.720 or something stupid. You know. Yeah, I mean one of 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.520 these hotels had uh And we'll get into the nitty 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.560 gritty of the just how flammable these places were back then. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.840 And it's amaze using the uh steps that they've taken 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:07.200 over the years to make things UH safer. But I 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.800 think one of these places had like seven layers of 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:16.200 wallpaper upon wallpaper, which were all highly highly flammable. Yeah, 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.639 like there burlap walls sometimes like stuff that just if 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.360 you look at it wrong, it'll catch fire. It's like, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:25.960 what did you just say, Yeah, I'm catching fire. They 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:32.080 were using Firebug special brand wallpaper that bad. It wouldn't 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:34.600 surprise me. Well, of course they wouldn't do that, but everything, 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.320 I don't know, it was just everything was really flammable. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:42.040 It seemed like flammable, dangerous pajamas were very flammable. This 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.840 everything was flammable back then, way more than these days. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:49.480 All the things you smoke in right, smoking jackets were flammable. Yeah, 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.799 cigarettes flammable. So this this one year, so there were 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.600 tons and tons of hotel fires, like it was, it 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:02.040 was a thing. Um. But in nineteen forty six it 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:06.160 just got particularly bad and it was just coincidence. There 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.959 wasn't anything really that connected these fires, but there were 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:16.200 a handful of hotel fires that year that happened quickly 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.960 enough and we're big enough or or it happened um 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.360 close enough to one another, i should say, and then 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.440 we're big enough had enough of a casualties in um 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.040 deaths from them that that it caught the attention of 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.480 the public and and something was finally done. And it 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.600 was nineteen six when it happened. And the first one 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:44.000 was in June, yes, June five, in Chicago, Illinois, the 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:49.200 LaSalle Hotel. Uh. So here's how this one went down. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.040 That was it was after the school year had ended, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.040 so this hotel was really packed. Um, A lot of 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.240 families would and still do if you live in in 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.240 the suburbs of rural areas, would flood into the city 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.040 after the school year. They bring their kids, they go shopping, 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.080 they go to the zoo, they do city things. Uh 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.040 as you know, sort of like a post school vacation. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.920 And so all of this hotel was full, one thousand rooms. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.719 Apparently we're fully occupied and uh like so many of 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.839 these they started late at night. Yeah, and the cocktail lounge, 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:27.479 the Silver Grill cocktail lounge on the ground floor of 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:33.000 the LaSalle, and the cocktail wait staff had a longstanding 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.600 method of disposing of cigarette butts at the end of 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.359 the night from all the ash trays, from the empty 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.240 the ash trays, They just dump them in a cardboard 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.640 box that they kept in a closet behind the bar. Yeah. 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.000 I thought you were gonna say they had a way 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:50.599 of getting people out of the bar, which is crank. Now, 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.880 usually you crank. What was that really bad band that 0:04:54.960 --> 0:05:01.560 everyone hates Special No, that's when everyone loves it. Was 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:07.080 a Canadian band that everyone makes fun of all the time. Rush. No, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.679 you can say they cranked and nickelback. No, that although 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:14.920 I don't know what that would have done to people 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:18.840 in their minds might have been blown. Maybe they were 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.279 a band out of time and place. Yeah, uh so 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.920 they didn't. They didn't um blare any nickelback. Everybody just 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.039 left on their own accord. But after they left, this 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.839 box of smoldering cigarette butts cardboard box of smoldering cigarette 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.279 butts in the closet in one of the world's most 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:40.719 flammable hotels, UM caught like their luck ran out. I 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.960 can't believe that it didn't happen sooner, but that's what 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.080 happened this Um. Somebody I think smelled smoke, and very 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.279 quickly after that, Um, they saw a little bit of 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:58.640 flames coming from beneath the paneling around the wall. Right. No, 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.000 but here's a mistake. Number two comes in, chuck. And 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.760 this is a recurring theme too with these hotel fires. Um, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.600 everyone said we got this, and some drunken people went 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:12.880 and grabbed a Seltzer bottle and started to try to 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.360 put the fire out themselves. Yeah. I mean it's hard 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.760 to or rather it's easy to cast stones in the 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:26.120 year two thousand eighteen. But I imagine if I was 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.119 hammered at a bar at two twenty in the morning 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.120 and I saw a little smoke in a little flame, 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.920 my first reaction would probably be like man let's extinguish 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.159 this real quick and not let me run and call 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.640 the fire department. But that's exactly what you should always do, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.480 is running call the fire department. Yeah, that's that's I mean, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.680 that's what I learned from researching this is that's the implication. 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.200 Just don't don't assume that you can handle any fire. 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:53.680 That's what the fire department is there for. They're more 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.520 than happy to come out to your call and um 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:58.680 deal with it. And you don't have to be embarrassed. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.040 If it was just a little fire, sure they'll make 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:03.520 fun of you, but it will be behind your back. Yeah. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.440 But this one was especially egregious because apparently from that 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.080 moment that they saw those flames and smelled the smoke, 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:15.680 it took about fifteen minutes before anybody called the fire department, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:21.239 apparently because they were arguing over or concerned at least 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.160 over who had the authority in the hotel to call 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:26.520 the fire department, which I don't get. There was a 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.679 protocol like you had to be of a certain level 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.680 of management, I believe, to to officially call in a 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.880 fire call to the fire department. Yeah. I think anybody 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.160 who sees the flames should be qualified to call the 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.480 fire department, right, Yeah, but that was a huge, huge delay. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.280 Fifteen minutes in this place, as you'll see, um was 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.040 a big deal and what matter, that's all it took 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.040 rather that fifteen minutes. Yeah too, like it was done 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.840 after that. Yeah, And they figured out pretty quickly when 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.360 they ran it to um tell the manager that it 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.960 was on fire. After they tried that seltzer bottle thing. Um, 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.560 I think the flames just went and they started. They 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.080 all ran away because they saw that this was this 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.600 is bad. And then there was another fifteen minutes on 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.640 top of that. And in the meantime, this sal's cocktail 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.880 lounge and actually a lot of the lobby had just 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.800 been redone in this nicely veneered wood um and everything 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.400 flammable that they could possibly come up with. And so 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.440 that fifteen minutes was very substantial and letting this fire 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.440 really get going. Yeah, they said, hey, we have this 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:34.040 great new uh bar and lounge, but we need to 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.280 ventilate it because everyone's smoking. So we're gonna cut a 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.520 hole in the elevator shaft and all of a sudden 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.120 you have a chimney, and that'll be a common thread. 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.480 Here is just how many big open areas, whether it 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.600 be a trans and window above the room doors being open, 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.920 which happened a lot back then because there wasn't air 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:56.040 conditioning in these buildings. It's a big point. Uh. It 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.120 just really exacerbates of fire once it gets going. And 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.559 with a little sal in particular, the fact that they 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.400 had cut a hole, an air hole from the place 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.800 where the fire started into a central open shaft going 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:16.560 up into the hotel. Um. That's one thing, but leading 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.960 into this this um elevator shaft, there were also air 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.079 holes on every floor because these fire doors that were 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.040 supposed to close off each floor from the central stairwell 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.440 have been propped open to allow air to flow through better. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.840 And then like you said, there were windows above the 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.680 doors that were open a little bit, the transoms, and 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.760 that was letting in air from the outside into the 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.640 hotel itself. So the flames and the smoke and the 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.920 fumes were able to just rise that much more quickly 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.320 because of the series of little, tiny decisions that individual 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.360 people had made that all came together to turn this 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.960 thing into a conflagration. Yeah, and I'm not sure if 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:57.400 it was a little sal or one of the other 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.240 ones but that they all seemed to have trans and 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.319 they all seemed to make a big difference because they 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.400 were largely open because one of them, uh, they found 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.080 in the rooms where the transoms were closed, the fire 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.120 damage wasn't so bad, but in the ones where they 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.320 were open, they were just you know, gutted. Right. So 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.199 there was, um a few things that happened. Right as 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.520 this fire is getting really bad. Um the fire department 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:24.959 starts to show up, and ultimately three firefighters from sixty 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.840 one companies showed up to this fire to fight it, 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.640 which is just an enormous amount even for back then, 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.880 especially for back then. Um. And they're not just firefighters, 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.920 there are actually people at the hotel who were working 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.559 to save lives. In particular, Chuck, there was a switchboard 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.920 operator at the hotel who stayed on to call individual 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.760 rooms because this fire started after midnight, so most of 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.199 the people in the hotel were in their rooms asleep. 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.200 So this operator was calling every room and saying, there's 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.160 a fire, get out of the hotel and hang up 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.040 and call the next one. And she actually died in 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.440 the fire because she stayed on to call as many 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.840 rooms as possible. And the fact that more people didn't die. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.920 Out of more than a thousand people, ultimately sixty one died. 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.439 You can basically attribute to this this lady's heroism for 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.800 staying on and giving her life to to tell as 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.240 many people as as possible that there was a fire 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.040 in the hotel. Yeah, that's amazing. And and she had 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.160 to do that because there was no alarm system, so 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.800 not even a bell ringing out. I think he said 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.120 three hundred firefighters in. Only three of these fire units 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.040 in the entire city had two way radios, so the 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.560 word couldn't get around fast enough. In the end, they 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:47.440 got about sixty UM units there, but by that time 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:50.200 it was just too little, too late. But the fact, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.400 like you said, I mean, this had more guests than 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.120 any of the other hotels staying there, and the fact 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.280 that only sixty one people died out of the thousand 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.960 is it's pretty amazing. Yeah. There there was also another 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.079 pair of heroes who were I think sailors um They 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.040 rescued twenty seven people between the two of them. They 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:12.360 just kept running back into the hotel and dragging people out. Amazing. Yeah, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.319 it is amazing what like something like that does to people, 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.559 To some people brings out just amazing stuff in them, 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.960 you know. Yeah. So two weeks later, on June nineteenth, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.040 I mean, America was still sort of recovering from this news. Uh, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:32.640 nineteen people died at the Hotel Canfield in Dubuque, Iowa. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.440 And it really was eerily similar. Like it seemed like 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.480 none of these buildings had sprinklers or alarms. They were 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.040 all highly combustible. They all had these big open staircases, 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:49.600 and the fire doors were open, right, And an open 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.200 fire door is not a fire door, no, And I 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.959 mean like they had like good fire doors. But if 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.319 it's open, yeah, it's it's just a really easy place 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.840 for smoke and fire and aired feed the fire to 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.200 just move through. Um. And the at the at the Canfield, 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.120 I think that I think they had built onto the hotel, 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.760 the hotel, and you said this is a Dubuke, Iowa, right, 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.800 They had originally built the hotel and then added on 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.880 and the news the new section was doing fairly well. 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:26.560 But when the um when the the old section, which 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.440 is where the cocktail lounge was where the fire started again. Um, 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.480 the uh, when that burned, like that burned substantially, they 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.920 had to tear it down afterward, and I have to 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.360 correct myself. I made fun of the Lassalle's wait staff 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:46.440 for um, putting the cigarette butts into a box. No one, 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.319 no one in Chicago would do something that careless. You 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.760 would have to live in Dubuke to do something that careless. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.360 Because it was actually at the Canfield where that fire 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.360 was started like that. Yeah, there was an employee who 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.160 opened that little closet, uh, also known as the cigarette 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.280 dumping room. I guess at the back of the lounge. 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.920 Um by this time that the bar had emptied out. 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.640 And uh, this this kid you know again doesn't call 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.120 immediately the fire department. He runs to find the manager, 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.240 which you know, a kid working there again, I don't 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.320 that may have been protocol, but you're you're probably trained 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.680 to go tell the manager of any anything like that. 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:30.880 And one William Canfield was a manager. He actually didn't 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.120 call right away either. He ran to get a fire extinguisher, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:38.560 ran back there. Everything was fully on fire. Hammed HAMMEDA. Yeah, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.400 at that point he knew what was going on. And uh, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.560 you know, some of these people burned to death, many 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.800 of them on the upper floors, uh, were affixiated by smoke. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.320 And another recurring thing that you'll see is people jumping 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:58.040 into nets or climbing down sheets tied together, or fire escapes. 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.320 Some of them made it. Some of them, Yeah, I 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.160 think a lot of the ones who tied their bed 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.080 sheets into ropes and and shimmy down actually did make it. Um. 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.920 But I think ultimately there were um thirty people who 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:19.120 were rescued jumping into nets, seven were carried down by ladders, um. 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.320 And there were a hundred guests that managed to escape. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:27.040 I think the total number of guests who died were nineteen. 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.800 Nineteen people died, So again, it could have been a 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.880 lot worse. The fire department hadn't have gotten as many 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.960 people out, or as many people hadn't have like, you know, 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.160 made their own ropes to shimmy down. But again, this 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.040 was like less than two weeks after the fire in 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.360 Chicago and two days chuck. Again, this is making national news, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.920 these huge fires, right, people stayed in hotels. It was 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.680 like a big deal if if a lot of people 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.920 died in a hotel fire. Two days after the Canfield 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.400 Hotel in Dubuque in June, on June one, there was 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.600 another fire and this was was in Dallas at the 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.640 Baker Hotel. Yeah, and this one seems to be uh 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.640 like the hot Shot placed to be the luxury hotel 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.480 in the city. Uh. Not only did it host people 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:19.840 from at like you know, high falutin people from out 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.200 of town, but they had several you know, well to 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.400 do restaurants in ballrooms and things. So many locals uh 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.560 hung out here as well, like uh like the big 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.960 bands and the swing bands of the twenties and thirties 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.480 would play here, but they were forced to wear stets 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.440 and hats when they did, probably so this was local custom. Uh. 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.160 And this was a gas explosion at this one, um, 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.080 so it wasn't the fault of someone dumping cigarette butts 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.240 or anything like that. Uh. And ten people ended up 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.600 dying in this one, injured over forty. And the only 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.640 reason that this one seemed to have a um they 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.320 got away lighter lighter with the death count was that 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.440 it was in a sub basement and it never fully 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.760 like went through the rest of the hotel. Right. But 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.480 again this is so three fires in the month of 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:14.560 June claimed the lives of ninety people, one right after 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.040 the other. And this has America's attention, right, But really, 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.040 the whole thing just kind of set the stage for 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.119 what would be the worst hotel fire in the history 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.320 of the United States. Um, that would come in December, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.240 and we'll take a break and we'll get to the 0:17:30.280 --> 0:18:01.000 Wine Cough Hotel fire after this. So we're in Atlanta, 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:09.880 Georgia right literally and in the way back machine. Okay, 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.480 because this happened in Atlanta, and we briefly mentioned this 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.000 in one episode a while back and said, hey, we 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.880 should do an episode on that. Did we I can't 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.640 remember why, but we mentioned it and um or maybe 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.240 as a listener mail or something. But here we are 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.520 making good for once on a promise. Yeah, not even 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.959 remembering that we've made the promise, just stumbling backwards into 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.920 fulfilling that promise. It may have been skyscrapers, because the 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.199 Wine Coff Hotel in Atlanta was fifteen stories high and 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.240 when it was built in nineteen thirteen, it was one 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:47.920 of it was considered a skyscraper in one of Atlanta's 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:52.080 first right. Um, yeah, fifteen stories in nineteen thirteen, that's 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.359 nothing to sneeze at, especially in Atlanta too, Right. Is 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.760 there a website converter for how many stories that would be? Today? 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:04.000 Let's see it's fifty thousand, big Max Tall. UM. So 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.080 the the Wine coff is actually still around today. It's 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.959 called the Ellis Hotel now down by UM Philips Arena 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:16.600 downtown UM. And back in n like you said, it 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.159 was a it was a pretty swine hotel in the 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:25.160 Atlanta area. UM. And this was in December, December seven, 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.760 that was the fifth anniversary of Pearl Harbor. And there 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.080 were a pretty decent amount of people staying in the 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.679 Wine Cough that night. I think, um, how many was 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.600 it a thousand? No, a couple of hundred. I'm sorry, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.639 it was a thousand who were in the LaSalle, But 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.080 there was, um, I think three hundred people staying in 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.439 the Wine Cough. People from out of town, A lot 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.879 of them from out of town, people who were shopping 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.440 for Christmas. There was a contingent of high school kids 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:59.720 from Rome who were Rome Georgia much different, who were 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.080 um part of the tri hi Y, which is a 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.720 Christian group, and they had come because they were going 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:10.760 to be take place in a mock legislature. And then um, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.080 there were a lot of Vets returning from World War Two. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:15.600 There's just a lot of people hanging out in the 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.200 wine cough that night. Yeah, and this one we should 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.720 point out this, Like so many buildings and especially hotels 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:28.000 at the time, we're advertised as fireproof. Um. Obviously, pre 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.480 even fires were a problem, and it was probably on 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:36.359 people's minds, so they started things like the unsinkable Titanic 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:41.440 and fireproof buildings, like things were being touted as safe 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.359 and somewhat indestructible. But but by this time, Chuck, I 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.080 would have been like, well, I'm staying away from that 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.679 because because it's basically tempting fade apparently, because when you 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.359 call something unsinkable or fireproof, it burns to the ground 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:03.560 or sinks. Yeah. But here's the thing. The outside was fireproof, Okay, 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.040 So that there was I guess there was some fine 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.640 print there, because as you said, the ls Hotel still stands, 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.960 and at the end of this horrible fire, which we're 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:17.080 gonna detail, uh, the outside was still okay. It was 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.320 the inside where all the people and stuff are that 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:25.200 matters and was not fireproof at all. Right, So this one, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.840 the Wine Coff Hotel fire. Again, it's the worst hotel 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.399 fire in the United States history. Hopefully it stays that 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:36.200 way forever. Um. But it was started by a mystery. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.000 They still are not entirely sure what happened. But at 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:47.240 about three am on December seven, uh, somebody, no, I'm sorry. 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.280 It was the elevator operator who was traveling up and 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.560 down the elevator just doing her thing, and around the 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.800 fifth floor she noticed that she smelled smoke. So she 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.399 bolts all the way down to the ground floor and 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.119 runs out in a lobby and starts shouting fire, and 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:05.480 that kicks off a series of events that, um, they're 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:10.040 pretty substantial. Yeah, And keep in mind this fireproof hotel. 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.639 Not only did it have no sprinkler system and no 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.879 alarm system like seemingly every other building, there were no 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:22.080 fire doors and no fire escapes, so it seemed especially 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.840 fire prone, not fireproof at all. But I wonder if 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:29.280 they were saying, we don't even need that stuff because 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.560 this building is fireproof. Maybe, but boy, I mean they 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:37.280 didn't think that through at all, because uh, yeah, like 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:39.359 I said, what's on the inside counts. If the inside 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:41.679 is on fire, it doesn't matter if like, well, the 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:47.560 bricks still solid, guys, you know, still standing. The structure 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.040 is all right. So there are a couple of theories 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.159 as to how this one started. Um, there were a 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:57.439 group of dudes. They're playing poker. Um just met up 0:22:57.440 --> 0:22:59.399 in a room to play a game of poker or 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:01.800 play poker all night, and they were on the third floor. 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.960 Some people say that it started with a mattress in 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.320 the hallway outside their suite. So someone that was in 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:12.359 this game got ticked off, left the room and set 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:17.520 this mattress on fire on purpose. Yes, man named Roy McCulloch, 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:19.760 who was an ex con and then a con again 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:24.679 later on, whom had allegedly seen a guy who rated 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.720 him out in prison, and that he'd set the fire 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.040 after he left the poker game because he was trying 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.040 to kill the guy and ended up killing a hundred 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:36.159 nineteen people. That's actually the position of a pair of 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:41.280 journalists UM named Sam Hayes and Alan Goodwin, who wrote 0:23:41.280 --> 0:23:44.840 The Wine Calf Fire, a book. They very squarely placed 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.240 the whole thing on Roy McCullough's shoulders. Yeah, but that 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:51.080 is just a theory because other people in the Mayor 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:54.399 of Atlanta, mayor Hartsfield at the time did invite fire 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:57.920 experts in to to look it over, and I think 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.520 they kind of roundly that it was not some mattress 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:06.320 set on fire deliberately because people smelled like burning gas 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:11.240 or tires or some weird specific smoke spell smoke smell, 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:14.639 and they thought that there was an accelerant and it 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:16.360 was in another part of the hotel. It wasn't near 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:20.600 the mattress at all. And uh so that would explain why, 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:24.160 you know, the stairway went up so quickly. Well that, yeah, 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:27.160 and that was the official Atlanta Fire Department's position that 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:31.840 somebody had carelessly tossed a cigarette somewhere around the fourth 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:34.880 floor stairwell and it had gone up. Which I mean, 0:24:34.960 --> 0:24:37.160 if that's all it takes for your hotel to go up, 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:39.640 that's pretty bad too, you know. Yeah, and the wine 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:41.159