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LORRAINE HOTEL FIRE


Located at the Corner of Main and Lee Streets
Sapulpa, Creek County, Oklahoma

From "The Tulsa Tribune," Friday, December 2, 1949, Page 1

FLAMES DESTROY SAPULPA HOTEL; TWO FEARED DEAD
Two Other Buildings Are Razed, Two Damaged
by Worst Blaze in City's History
By Roy Hanna
Of The Tribune Staff

SAPULPA, Dec. 2 -- Two men are believed to have lost their lives early today when the most disastrous fire in Sapulpa's history destroyed the 70-room Lorraine hotel and two other buildings. Two additional structures were damaged, with loss estimates from $500,000 to $1,000,000.

Missing and presumed dead are:

Highway Patrolmen Jack McKenzie and Lewis Speck said the men were known to have been registered at the hotel, but no trace of either had been found early this afternoon. A badly burned car checked to Vincent, and with his driver's license in the glove compartment, was found parked near the hotel.

Fire Chief Bill Collyer said he believed the still-smouldering ruins would have cooled sufficiently by late this afternoon to permit firemen to begin the long and tedious task of searching the high-piled debris for possible victims.

The fire, discovered at 1:13 a.m. today, sent the hotel's estimated 35 guests fleeing into below-freezing temperatures, many clad only in night clothing.

At noon today Manager Bill Harris said 28 of the guests had been accounted for, but added the others might have found shelter elsewhere in Sapulpa.

Harris said that since the register was lost, he could not be certain about the number of guests, but he believed the hotel was housing 18 resident guests and 17 transients.

Only one man, H.A. Baker, 38-year-old portrait salesman from Kansas City, Mo., was reported injured. He was admitted to Sapulpa's city hospital with an ankle fracture suffered when he jumped from the hotel's third floor onto a mattress he had hurled from his room.

J.G. Berryhill, Sapulpa, seated in the lobby, first detected smoke seeping under the door to the coffee shop. He notified Night Clerk J.C. (page 10, column 1) Nayphe, who began calling guests by telephone. Meanwhile Berryhill and a bellboy started running through the corridors shouting, "Fire! Fire!"

Also destroyed by the fire were the Swift market and the Home Appliance store, one and two doors north of the hotel. Damaged were a filling station across the street and the Richards-Aycock Pontiac agency, behind the hotel. All residents in the several apartments above the appliance store escaped.

Several guests were pushed into life nets by firemen after they refused to climb down ladders.

Fire equipment from Tulsa, Bristow, Sand Springs and Drumright were rushed to the aid of Sapulpa firemen.

Massey, who arrived in Sapulpa last Monday to assume his position, said the hotel is leased by James Anderson of Terrell, Texas, from Nick Douvas of Sapulpa.

Meantime shivering firemen drank coffee supplied by Capt. Robert Birney of the Sand Spring Salvation Army, and waited for the ruins to cool so that a search of the debris could be made.

Twisted steel beams, bricks and masonry were piled 12 feet high in some sections of the hotel.

Minor explosions rocked the ruined buildings as combustible material was reached by the flames.

Part of the Pontiac agency was badly damaged when the rear wall of the hotel fell onto the building.

Jimmy Frear, 18, construction worker who lives at the St. James hotel, across the street from the Lorraine, said he talked to the last man seen to leave the hotel. The man escaped death by climbing down a fire ladder.

"The man," Frear said, "asked me what would happen to all those people left in the hotel. I told him I didn't know -- and that's the last time I saw him, because the south hotel wall seemed to explode, throwing bricks and stuff everywhere."

Lee Harbord, manager of the St. James, said he routed out his guests soon after the fire across the street started. Guests clad only in night attire fled into the freezing night air.

Harry Jensen, 29, Oklahoma City, said, "I woke up to find my room full of smoke. I thought it was a fire down the street and went back to sleep. Later I heard shouts and somebody yelled, 'Get out everybody -- the place is burning up.'"

Jensen, clad only in pants and shoes, was re-outfitted by the Salvation Army. He said he had left all his money and possessions in the hotel room.

Nayphe at dawn today was attempting to round up all guests who had fled the hotel. "I have no idea if anyone died in fire -- they just scattered to the four winds and I can't seem to find many of them," he said.

Nayphe said only two invalids were registered, "and I know they escaped," he said, "because I telephoned them first."

Firemen at dawn hooked cables to the front wall of the hotel and pulled it down.

Lights in the city were out from 45 minutes to an hour before service was restored.

The Salvation Army fed more than 200 firemen and volunteer workers with doughnuts and coffee. Capt. Birney said clothing and shoes would be issued to guests.

Business was practically at a standstill in downtown Sapulpa at 10 a.m. as thousands of residents crowded the streets to view the burning buildings.

Firemen drove two new cars out of the Pontiac showroom -- through plate glass windows -- before the hotel wall came crashing down on the building. One car still inside was demolished and eight others were damaged.

The Creek County Motor Co. set a wrecker to work pulling parked cars out of the fire area and it managed to save several vehicles.

HOTEL GUESTS LISTED SAFE
Special to The Tribune

Sapulpa, Dec. 2 -- Salvation Army Capt. Robert Birney said today the following guests of the burned Lorraine hotel had been accounted for:

Capt. Birney said that in addition to two men believed missing, calls had been received for three persons about whom no information is available. They were:

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