The Winecoff Fire, Sam Heys
The Winecoff Fire, Sam Heys
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The Winecoff Fire
The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire

Author: Sam Heys, Allen B. Goodwin

Narrator: Bruce Conger

Unabridged: 6 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/29/2021


Synopsis

It was Atlanta's Titanic.On December 7, 1946 at 3:42 a.m. the first alarm came into Atlanta Fire Department headquarters:"The Winecoff Hotel is on fire!"Twenty minutes later the fourth, final and "general alarm" - the one reserved for a citywide conflagration - went out.For the next two hours everything good, bad, improbable and certain about the human experience played out. Few events in history can match the Winecoff fire for extremes.No one who was there was ever the same after the fire. Every witness was affected for the rest of their lives. The shock waves affected thousands more and still ripple today.The tragic fire was at first ruled an accident in headlines welcomed by the public and embraced by city officials. But soon, closer examinations revealed an act so violent, so vicious - yet so unthinkable - it plunged the city into a state of denial from which it has never fully recovered.Many shattered lives were bravely pieced back together. Many grew stronger, most suffered mightily and some are still struggling.The story is told in our book:The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire --the tragedies, the triumphs, the extremes.May we remember always the 119 victims and their families. --The AuthorsPraise for The Winecoff Fire:“CAREFULLY AND POIGNANTLY SET FORTH” -Celestine Sibley, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution“GRIPPING” -The Asheville Citizen“INTRIGUING AND APPALLING...” -Columbia State“THEIR STORY IS RIVETING” -Montgomery Advertiser“I HONESTLY DID FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN” -Athens Banner-Herald“A REVERENTLY DETAILED ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT” -Columbus Ledger-Inquirer“YOU MUST READ...” -Valdosta Daily Times“THIS BOOK OF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING IS GRIPPING...AUTHORS ARE TO BE COMPLEMENTED FOR THE SCHOLARLY JOB...ENGROSSING” -Chattanooga News-Free Press

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim on December 14, 2021

"The Winecoff Fire" is an extraordinary book, providing a glimpse into one of the most haunting moments in Atlanta's history. The Dec. 7, 1946, fire turned into what still ranks as the deadliest fire in U.S. history and the second deadliest in the world. Sam Heys and Allen Goodwin wrote a stunning a......more

Goodreads review by Michael on February 03, 2014

One thing I can say is... This books jumps right into it!! No time spent with explaining things in the beginning. It starts at the fire and explains the backgrounds and details of the people involved as it tells you their fate. Different approach from the other fire related books I've read but it ke......more

Goodreads review by Stacy on September 16, 2021

The Winecoff Fire was published in 1993 by Longstreet Press in Atlanta, where I worked from 1992-1997. I was mainly a reader of fiction in those days and did not have the true crime resolve I have now, so I never got around to reading it, but, since a couple of times a month I pass the old Winecoff......more

Goodreads review by Neil on August 08, 2022

I was born ten years after the fire and hadn't heard of it. Then, after reading Guadalcanal Diary, I looked into the fate of a WWII pilot mentioned there who narrowly missed being killed in combat but died in 1946. I learned that he was killed in the Winecoff fire, and that led me to purchase this b......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on March 21, 2018

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 la......more