Ozark Hotel Seattle, Washington On March 20, 1970, a fire caused by arson broke out in the lobby, at about 2:30 am (a clock on the second floor had melted, showing the time as 2.45) spreading through two stairways and all the halls in the Ozark Hotel in Seattle, Washington, killing 20 people (14 men and six women) and seriously injuring 10 others in a time span of 63 minutes, till the fire fighters extinguished the fire. The hotel, a 60-year-old building at the time of the fire, was a wooden building of five floors with 60 rooms. Stated to be the worst arson fire in Seattle, the status of the hotel, a five-story wooden structure, was known as susceptible to fire hazards. It was well known as “high risk facility” to the Fire Fighting Department. The hotel had been inspected six times from February 6, 1970, to even one day prior to the fire incident. On the night of the fire, 42 of the 62 rooms were occupied. The hotel was known as a “flophouse’ which provided cheap accommodation to many impoverished and elderly people. When the fire was set at two places (in the main stairwell on the first floor and also at the rear side of the hotel on the second floor) in the hotel by arsonists, at about 2:30 am, a wayside straggler had alerted the authorities. Saving grace in the building was an open core area which had a large shaft up to the 2nd floor, which enabled two people to escape to safety. As the fire was a deliberate act, it quickly engulfed the two staircases and the lobby that separated them. The top two floors completely collapsed in the fire. The open transoms in the room further helped in spreading the fire. Those who could not reach the fire escape tried to jump out of the windows of their rooms. The fire fighting department, who mobilized their forces immediately on hearing about the fire, and had inducted 14 engines and 4 ladders with a complement of over 100 firemen and 20 units, were able to control the fire within 50 minutes of their arrival at the scene of the fire. The causes for death of people due to the fire were deduced as due to smoke inhalation, burns, cuts and injuries. Loss due to fire was estimated to be US $100,000 at that time. The unresolved part of the whole fire incident is that no arsonists were caught in spite of a large contingent of police force inducted to inquire into the causes of fire. Noting that the building lacked modern fire fighting facilities, major changes in the citys fire code were initiated thereafter during President Ronald Reagan’s time. However, these rules are reported to have resulted in creation of homeless situation for many people in Seattle in the 1980s, since people living in low income housing could not afford to follow the stringent fire codes and laws and hence deserted their houses. Even small hotels with single occupancy rooms could not survive these rules.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:42:13 +0000