Morbid Wednesday
2008 April 30
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)
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!