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 Authors
Praise 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
