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The Hotel Roosevelt (in the foreground), in a 2001 Navy photograph. (Photo credit: Jeff Hilton)

The Hotel Roosevelt fire, on December 29, 1963, was the worst fire Jacksonville, Florida had seen since the Great Fire of 1901, and it contributed to the worst one-day death toll in the city's history. Twenty-two people died, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The Hotel Roosevelt was, at the time, one of only two luxury hotels in the city's downtown, with many restaurants and businesses located on its ground floor, including a ballroom and a barber shop. At the year's end, the Hotel Roosevelt hosted hundreds of travelers who came to attend the Gator Bowl.

Timeline

The fire was said to be started after a cigarette was left unattended in the ground-floor ballroom after a Gator Bowl celebration,^[1] but was in reality started in the ballroom's ceiling. The old ceiling, which was deemed a fire hazard, was not removed when the new ceiling was installed, providing kindling for the fire, which started from faulty wires.^[2]

The first calls to the Jacksonville Fire Department were made at 7:30 a.m. Smoke was traveling throughout the 13-story building, and hotel visitors climbed out of the smoky building with the help of other patrons and bedsheets tied together. Mayor W. Haydon Burns immediately called for assistance from the U.S. Navy, and eight helicopters were flown to downtown from Cecil Field and NAS Jacksonville. The airmen helped the patrons out of the building, and transported them to a nearby parking lot, where ambulances were already waiting.

The fire was extinguished by 9:30 a.m., and it was estimated that nearly 475 people were saved from the burning building. After a day of recovering the dead, firefighters found 21 residents dead in their beds from smoke inhalation. In addition, assistant chief J.R. Romedy^[3] collapsed of a heart attack during the initial rescue efforts, and died at the scene.

Aftermath and remembrance

Property damage to the Hotel Roosevelt was immense, and the hotel was closed in 1964, with most of the hotel's businesses and staff relocating to the equally upscale Hotel George Washington. After much renovation, the building was re-opened as a retirement home, the Jacksonville Regency House, which closed in 1989.

The former Hotel Roosevelt, located on Adams Street in downtown, is still standing. The building was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in February 1991. Memorials are still held to remember those who died in the fire (the most recent gathering occurred in December 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the blaze).

The building was renovated in recent years and is now known as The Carling, an upscale apartment residence.

Myths about the fire

A popular urban legend that circulated in the months and years after the fire was that the 1963 Gator Bowl Queen jumped from the roof to her death, but was later proven to be false^[4]. However 1964 Miss America Donna Axum^[5][6] was rescued from the roof of the hotel.

Notes and references