December 7, 1946: The Winecoff Hotel Fire

December 7, 1946: The Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta catches fire, resulting in the deadliest hotel fire in American history.

The Winecoff Hotel, 15 floors, opened in 1913, at 176 Peachtree Street at Ellis Street. It was touted in advertisements and on its stationery as "absolutely fireproof." That turned out not to be true at 3:15 AM on December 7, 1946, when a bellboy saw a fire on the 5th floor, and alerted the night manager. Instead of sounding the building's fire alarm, the manager called as many rooms as he could before calling the fire department at 3:42. The Atlanta Fire Department later determined that the cause was dropped cigarette on the 3rd floor.

There were 119 deaths, including the hotel's builder and namesake, William Fleming Winecoff, and his wife, Grace Smith Winecoff. They were both 76 years old, and lived in Suite 1011-1012. He was found in the hall, while she was found on the sidewalk, apparently having jumped.

She was one of several victims who jumped to their deaths. A photograph of the fall of one survivor, Daisy McCumber, was taken by Arnold Hardy, a graduate student at nearby Georgia Tech. He sent it to the Associated Press, and it won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

Daisy McCumber sustained serious injuries,
including the loss of a leg, but survived, and lived until 1992.
Arnold Hardy lived until 2007.

It was a bad year for hotel fires: 61 died in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago on June 5, 19 in the Canfield Hotel on June 9. This spurred significant changes in North American building codes, most significantly requiring multiple protected means of egress and self-closing fire-resistant doors for guest rooms in hotels.

The Winecoff Hotel reopened, with the name of the Peachtree Hotel on Peachtree and the latest in fire safety technology. In 1967, it became public housing for the elderly, but was left vacant in the 1980s. In 2007, after a renovation, it was reopened as the Ellis Hotel. A historical marker paying tribute to the fire victims stands across the street.

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December 7, 1946 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games in college football.

Utah State beat the University of Denver, 28-14 at Hilltop Stadium in Denver. And Nevada beat Hawaii, 26-7 at Honolulu Stadium.

There were 5 games played in the league that would become the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics, 90-65 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Huskies beat the Providence Steam Rollers, 68-59 at the Rhode Island Arena in Providence.

* The Washington Capitols beat the Detroit Falcons, 75-64 at the Uline Arena (now the Washington Coliseum).

* The Chicago Stags beat the Cleveland Rebels, 86-78 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Philadelphia Warriors beat the St. Louis Bombers, 57-47 at the St. Louis Arena.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 5-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went up to North Yorkshire, and lost to Middlesbrough, 2-0 at Ayresome Park.