Find it on Amazon
I had never heard of the fire of The Winecoff Hotel. I’m from the south, but not Atlanta, so it’s not surprising that I’ve never run across it. I was looking for some True-Crime books at the library, and I saw this, so I grabbed it.
Billed as a “Fireproof Hotel” much like the Titanic was the “Unsinkable Ship”. Seems to me a tempt of fate! 119 people died.
It was really interesting reading the stories of the people who survived, and sad to read about the ones that didn’t. All those kids! 1946 was not equipt with all the safety laws that we have now. There is no way a hotel would operate now without fire exits! And odds are we have the Winecoff and other tragedies to thank for that! While lots of folks died inside the hotel, many jumped – some to safety some to death.
I can’t imagine. I don’t think I would be able to do it. To climb out of a window and jump and hope for the best?! Gah. I’m sure I would have been paralyzed with fear. — In fact, off topic, but I just 2 days ago watched the Super Bowl episode of ‘This is Us’. Fire’s are definitely on my mind after that! Oh Jack! Why didn’t they have an oxygen mask on him at the hospital?! I know this was 20 years ago and a tv show, but Damn! —
It was also interesting to read about how the owners of the hotel reacted to the fire and what came after. Just goes to show greed was just as rabid in the 1940’s as now, just no social media to call them out on!
Reviewing Life 