Morbid Wednesday
30 Apr
Atlanta’s Winecoff Hotel fire in 1946 was the deadliest hotel fire in history, killing 119 guests (out of 280). Arnold Hardy, a Georgia Tech student, snapped this photo of a woman leaping to her death from the burning building. He later won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography for this image, and was the first amateur to win the award. (The building is now the Ellis Hotel. More on the Winecoff fire here.)
This photo is from a 1952 issue of Jet. (via vieilles annonces’ Flickr)
Tags: arnold hardy, grady hospital, winecoff hotel
My grandfather was one of the fire fighters that battled the blaze at the Winecoff. He told my parents it was the most horrific night of his life. Morbid indeed!
You may be happy to hear the lady in this famous photograph did in fact survive. The AP did report at first she died but if you go to winecoff.org there is more updated information about the fire.