Just like the fireworks factory explosion I brought up a few weeks ago, this is an event that is forgotten in disaster history. Maybe because it happened just days after the MGM Grand Fire in Las Vegas that killed 85 people, and perhaps people could not wrap their mind around another massive hotel fire that claimed so many lives.
The Souffer’s Inn in Harrison, New York was a newer hotel equipped to hold several conferences at once. That morning, meetings with executives of Nestle, and Arrow Electronics were being held in separate rooms. Around 10:30, fire erupted and spread quickly through the rooms as though they were made out of paper. The survivors jumped out of windows in the conference rooms, and rushed down stairwells. The victims died behind a Christmas tree where an emergency exit door didn’t work, died in a closet mistaken for an exit, and died of smoke inhalation before they could get to an exit. 26 people died. 4
Today, we take sprinklers in our motel rooms for granted, back then it wasn’t common. Gordon Vickery, head of the U.S. Fire Administration at the time said, “At the Stouffer’s Inn, the hotel section was fully sprinklered, but the conference center—where the fire started—was not. There were some graphic examples in both tragedies [MGM Grand & Stouffers] where the flames stopped exactly at the point the sprinklers began. Sprinklers are the answer. The problem is getting owners to install them and other safety equipment in existing buildings. “ 2
In the wake of the two fires, Popular Science suggested that people bring their own smoke detectors to hotels. That seems so ridiculous now, but it just shows how back then hotel fire safety was almost an afterthought:
At first in the investigation, it was believed that electric equipment that was being presented by Arrow caused the fire, Arrrow argued that no equipment of theirs was on when the fire started. Then, the blame leaned to a coffee waiter, Luis Martin, who prosecutors believed started the fire with liquid sterno (used under coffee carafes to keep coffee warm) so he could rescue people, or alert people to the fire so he could become a hero–and avoid being fired for immigration violations. However, during his 1982 trial, none of the witnesses testified that they saw Luis start the fire, and there was no physical evidence to link him to the fire. Remarkably, the jury found him guilty–but days later the judge set aside the verdict, and freed him. 5 It doesn’t end there, however, in 1984, during the settlement trial for the victims, and Martin, it was revealed that the manager and the Stouffer’s company withheld information about a giant stainless steel cleaner spill the night before the fire:
Mr. Herold [Martin’s lawyer] said, “It is now known that on the evening preceding the fire a party was held in the conference center by employees of the Arrow Corporation. At its conclusion,” he continued, “a housekeeping crew working in the immediate vicinity of where the fire started spilled a highly volatile stainless steel cleaner.”
“The fact of the spill became known to other employees before the fire and Mr. Ewoldt [the hotel manager] and others had the container of cleaner removed and did not report it to authorities,” Mr. Herold said. “If the prosecution had known about it they would have told us because it was potentially exculpatory for Luis Marin. An explanation for the cause of the fire or its spread would have been helpful.”
Stouffer’s and Mr. Ewoldt, in responding to the civil suit, have denied knowing that an unusual and large stain had been observed near where the fire started and before the flames were seen. They also denied that any container had been removed or that information had been withheld from investigators. 6
1. "Tragedy Hits N.Y. Hotel.“ The Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1980, 6, part 2.
2. Bonnett, Margie. "Two Hotel Infernos Leave An Expert Smoldering Over U.S. Apathy on Fire Safety.” People, January 12, 1981
3. Beiswinger, George. “For Safer Traveling: Take Along Smoke Alarm.” Popular Science, January, 1982, 38.
4. "Victims Didn’t Have a Chance.“ Syracuse Herald-Journal, December 5, 1980.
5. Hughes, Bill. "Busboy Convicted of Setting Stouffer’s Fire, but Judges Overruled Jury.” The Journal News, December 4, 2005. Accessed July 22, 2015. http://archive.lohud.com/article/20051204/NEWS02/512040361/Busboy-convicted-setting-Stouffer-s-fire-judges-overruled-jury.
6. James, Feron. “QUESTIONS STILL LINGER IN STOUFFER’S FIRE.”New York Times, June 3, 1984. Accessed July 23, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/nyregion/questions-still-linger-in-stouffer-s-fire.html.
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