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There is the sad fact that people die in hotel fires. In many different ways, authorities have demanded the use of life-saving equipment, but one way to help people escape from a hotel fire never seemed to catch on, which seems odd since it is so simple. Learn about the importance of ropes in hotel rooms. |
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https://postcardhistory.net/2025/09/hotel-fires-and-the-fire-escape-rope/
September 11, 2025
Hotel Fires and the Fire Escape Rope
Published on
On an uncalculated date in February 1924, R. A. Cavenaugh, who at the time was the secretary of the I.C.M.A. (International City Managers’ Association) decided that hotel rooms across the country should be equipped with escape ropes.
Based on the experience of being a witness to a tragic event in his home town, Mr. Cavenaugh created a long list of criteria for the ropes that included, 1. the weight capacity the rope could hold, 2. the thickness (circumference of the rope), 3. that at least a four-pound weight should be attached at the end of the rope so it could break a glass window with a minimum effort, 4. how “knots” were to be tided at each floor level, 5. that a hotel employee should be tasked as a thorough inspector using a monthly schedule, and 6. the hotel manager should prepare instruction sheets for using the ropes and that those pages should become standard handouts in the registration process.
The postcard above was printed at the I.C.M.A.’s expenses and distributed to dozens of city managers who would include them in visitor packages available in hospitality centers within their cities.
Although a search for data has been completed, no record has been kept as to how many hotels installed escape ropes or if or when an escape rope ever saved a life or lives.
Windsor Hotel. Minneapolis, Minnesota
On January 3, 1940, Minneapolis saw one of the deadliest fires in the city’s history – the Marlborough Hotel disaster. Located at Third Avenue South and Fifteenth Street, the aging three-story building housed over 120 residents in 56 single rooms and 23 apartment units. Just before dawn, a powerful explosion in the basement, likely near the boiler room, triggered a fast-moving inferno that consumed the structure within minutes.
The fire claimed nineteen lives and injured dozens more. Many were forced to leap from windows to escape the flames. Survivors described waking to thick smoke and unbearable heat, smashing windows with bare fists in desperate attempts to flee. One man pushed his wife out a third-story window to save her; she tragically died from the fall, but he survived.
Firefighters arrived swiftly, but their efforts were severely hampered by the frigid winter temperatures. Water from hoses froze instantly, coating the building in ice and turning rescue operations into a hellish struggle. Despite the chaos, acts of heroism emerged, including a cab driver named Henry Kadlac, who caught children tossed from windows by their parents.
The cause of the fire was never determined, though investigators speculated it may have been sparked by smoldering cigarette butts discarded down a trash chute.
Only one postcard of the Winsor Hotel has been found, it is a printed real photo card of the building taken after the fire. There were no escape ropes in the Marlborough.
Other fires
No official records of hotel fires were kept before 1877, but when the Southern Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, burned down on April 11, 1877, killing twenty-one people, there was such an outcry that newly inaugurated President Rutherford Hayes took steps to record and manage data related to what were considered “public and accidental deaths.”
The Southern Hotel. St. Louis, Missouri
Located between Fourth and Fifth Streets at Walnut, the hotel was utterly destroyed by fire and left as a “jagged, smoking ruin” so said the local newspaper on the morning of April 12, 1877.
The fire started about 1 a.m., and the building may have been on fire for half an hour before the alarm was sounded. The assumption was that the “immense draft of the baggage elevator” pulled the flames upwards through the building. The thick smoke extinguished the hotel’s gas lighting so no one could see.
The hotel, constructed in 1865 at a cost of one million dollars was quickly awarded “A Grand Hotel” rating, with 400 guest rooms, thick brick walls inside and out, water pipes and fire hoses on each floor, and an “annunciator” fire alarm. But no escape ropes.
Legend and lore surround this event. Two firefighters, O’Toole and Hester (of Hook and Ladder No. 3) were credited with saving twenty lives. Also, according to the St. Louis Dispatch the next morning, “A girl on Fifth Street had her dress set on fire by the falling cinders and would undoubtedly have perished had not a big German snatched off her outer dress and trampled it underfoot.” Among the survivors were none other than Joseph Pulitzer who had been staying on the third floor, who escaped without a shirt, socks or much else. Among the dead were a vicar from England, an American reverend, a Masonic secretary, two female servants, and an executive of the Missouri Pacific Railway.
Alexander Hamilton Hotel. Paterson, New Jersey
On October 18, 1984, a fire set by an arson swept the shabby Alexander Hamilton Residential Hotel in downtown Paterson, New Jersey. Once the elegant building fell into disrepair the site on which the hotel was located became prime real estate.
The fire killed fifteen people and injured more than sixty others. “People were screaming, trying to tie sheets and blankets together to get out the windows,” said one hotel resident. She fled with her three children from a room on the first floor but others who were scared just jumped from the windows. Some survived the fall, but many did not.
There were no escape ropes at the Hamilton.
The Mizpah Hotel Fire. Tonopah, Nevada
The saddest hotel fire on record occurred in Nevada. On October 31, 2006, a fire broke out at the five-story Mizpah Hotel in Reno, Nevada killing twelve people.
The fire started at 10:00 PM, when the perpetrator put a mattress against a door, and then set it on fire. There were eight bodies found immediately, then the death toll rose to nine by November 3rd. Two more bodies were located by November 6th, bringing the death toll to eleven. The final body was recovered by November 9th.
A woman was arrested for starting the fire. At her trial, 47-year-old Valerie Moore was charged with arson and multiple counts of first-degree murder. Moore had a criminal history in which she was convicted of second-degree murder in 1987 and released on parole in 2005. On January 19, 2007, Moore pled guilty. On March 17, 2007, Moore was sentenced to twelve life terms without parole.
Any attempt to be prepared to save lives with fire escape ropes would be a worthwhile one but fighting crime with a rope is almost impossible.
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Often there is no end to a topic such as this. If you want to learn more about hotel fires, search the newspapers or google:
- the LaSalle Hotel fire in Chicago on June 5, 1946, when 61 were killed.
- the Winecoff Hotel fire, of December 7, 1946, in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the deadliest hotel fire in American history, killing 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel’s original owners.
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Thank for this valuable article. Years ago I worked in a department of traveling auditors for a man who always always carried a rope in his suitcase. I suspect one of your stories influenced him. Even today, a rope ladder is a good idea.
fascinating article: thanks