Hotel Fires Continue to Cause Loss of Life and Property
Four Firemen Killed in San Francisco Fire, Panic Prevented in St. Louis
A STAFF REPORT
Editor’s Note: Despite the publicity given the fatal hotel fires in Chicago, Dubuque, Dallas and elsewhere and the obvious fire preventive measures taken by the fire service, insurance bureaus and other interests to reduce life and property losses in this classification, this type of hazard continues to flourish, and fires in hotels and multiple dwellings continue to claim their costly toll.
Two among the many serious fires in this category are worthy of study: the fire in the Hotel Hobart, San Francisco, which claimed the lives of four firemen, and the blaze in the Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, which might have been another tragedy, but wasn’t.
The editors are indebted to correspondents Robert Greenock and Don Matthews of San Francisco, and other readers for the data upon which the following accounts are based.
PARK PLAZA HOTEL FIRE IN ST. LOUIS
IN the light of the recent fires in the Hotel Congress and La Salle, both of which were optimistically referred to as “fireproof”, the blaze in the towering Park Plaza St. Louis, August 18th, may be called fortunate. Although approximately 800 guests of the big hotel, at 220 North Kingshighway were routed from their rooms shortly after 8:00 A.M., most of them fleeing the building, no guests lost their lives or were severely injured, and property loss was held to a minimum. The only injuries were to five firemen of the St. Louis Fire Department, four of them being overcome by smoke or burns, and the fifth cut on the right forearm.
Had the fire occurred at about the early hour of those of the La Salle and Danfield Hotels, in Chicago and Dubuque, respectively, conditions might have been different at the Park Plaza. However, despite the fact that though the sound of the flames roaring up a shaft from the ground floor to the sixteenth floor were audible to the guests, there was little panic.
In this case, circumstances favored the fire-fighters. Not only was the building of fire retardent construction, but furnishings provided a minimum of combustibles for the flames to feed upon. Furthermore, the guests, many in night attire, had no difficulty in descending the interior fire escapes or reaching the ground by means of the elevators which, driven by plucky operators, continued to operate throughout the period of the fire, not only removing the guests, but taking firemen to the upper parts of the hotel.
In one important factor there was a similarity between this fire and that which wrecked the Hotel Canfield in Dubuque. That was the matter of origin. It will be recalled that the fire in the Canfield started apparently from a cigarette or cigar butt tossed into a cardboard container in a small storage room of the tavern adjoining the hotel lobby. Reports suggest that the Park Plaza fire also broke out in a small room on the first floor on the northeastern section of the building, “and probably was caused by a cigarette butt in a cardboard box placed in the room shortly before the fire was noticed” according to Fire Chief Frank Eg reither.
This shaft led out of a small room, which was used for storage by a negro porter, who said that “he had picked up cigar and cigarette butts and other trash and placed them in the box, which he left in the room preparatory to taking it to the boiler room for disposal.”
This was contrary to safety rules, according to Fire Marshal Walter H. Kammann, who conducted an investigation into the fire. The paper box, placed at the foot of the shaft, smouldered, flared up and ignited insulation on pipes and wires in the shaft. The shaft itself, it is disclosed, had been listed as “not fire stopped” in an inspection made as late as June 17 and July 6 by fire inspectors. At that time it was suggested that the pipes in the shaft be covered with mineral wool or fibre glass to prevent the unimpeded spread of flames.
The blaze, which spread vertically from the point of origin on the ground floorto the sixteenth floor of the shaft, was discovered at 7:45 A.M. by another negro porter employed in the barber shop. This porter observed smoke when he reported for work and called a bellboy. Accounts state that “they spent 20 minutes trying to put out the flames with an extinguisher.”
The first alarm w’as turned in at 8:17 A.M. and rapidly was followed by four additional alarms.
This delay in notifying the fire department was criticized by the Chief and Marshal Kammann. The Chief said that the blaze would not have gained as much headway as it did if the employees had turned in an alarm first and then, fought the fire while they were waiting for firemen to arrive. He pointed out, also, that the members of the St. Louis Hotel Association have agreed to have their employees attend a safety course sponsored by the Fire Department but, he said, the Park Plaza does not belong to the association.
The sixteenth floor, at which point the involved shaft terminated, is used as a rest room and workshop by the hotel. A providential factor, which distinguished this fire from its fatal predecessors, is that an automatic sprinkler system had been installed at this point, and when the heated gases reached dangerous temperature, sprinkler heads opened and prevented further extension of the fire.
Hotel guests, aroused by hotel telephone operators, or firemen, stationed on each of the floors affected, descended in an orderly manner by way of the inside fire escape on the south side of the hotel to the lobby. Others were brought down by the three elevators, whose operators remained at their posts. One of them, who had gone to a sixteenth floor room for a rest period shortly before the flames were discovered, was aroused by a bellboy, after her absence had been noticed by a fellow employe. Both the operator and bellboy managed safely to escape from the heat and smoke and reach the ground floor by means of an elevator. Water released from sprinklers and water streams used by firemen did most of the damage to rooms and walls.
Firemen and hotel employes were alike praised by guests. When heavy smoke emitted from the building, residents on the twentieth and other floors, leaned from windows and at first appeared to be greatly alarmed but, calmed by firemen and level headed guests kept their heads and did not give way to panic.
Heat was felt in, and smoke entered, many rooms on floors adjoining the shaft driving out many of the guests. It was here that firemen concentrated their attention and it is said their ability to reach the various upper floors of the structure without delay by means of the elevators, contributed greatly toward calming the tenants and controlling the fire.
Photo by Don Matthews
Chief Egenriether estimated the damage at $10,000 to the building and $5,000 to the contents, but this did not include damage to a photographic studio, drug store, barber shop or a doctor’s office in the building.
Fire, two years ago, in a storage room on the twenty-seventh floor and a print shop on the floor above, resulted in the evacuation of residents in the upper part of the structure.
