Akron, OH Park Hotel Fire, Dec 1928

Six Killed In Hotel Blaze

Akron, O., Fire Traps Victims on Third Floor of Building

(By United Press)

Akron, O., Dec. 26.-Spontaneous combustion caused a fire which swept a section of the Park Hotel here Tuesday, taking a toll of six dead and seven injured.

Five of the victims were trapped on the third floor and suffocated. The sixth was caught on the second floor and overcome.

The blaze originated in a pile of rubbish, according to the fire department officials. Seventy-five other guests on the first and second floors, managed to reach the street.

Decatur Evening Herald, Decatur, IL 26 Dec 1928

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Six Workers Are Killed in Hotel Blaze.

Flames Sweep Akron, Ohio, House While Occupants Asleep.

Akron, Ohio, Dec. 25. (AP)-Flames which swept the Park Hotel, a small structure occupied mainly by factory workers, resulted in the deaths of six persons early Tuesday. A number of others were badly burned.

One man was burned to death, while five others, one of them a woman, died as a result of being overcome by smoke.
The dead:
WILBUR WILSON, 27, Akron.
ARTHUR ALEXANDER, 67, Akron.
THOMAS KING, 28, Paden City, W. Va.
ALBERTA MILLER, 42, Mapleton, Pa.
A. C. BURRELL, Akron.
-- CURTIS, 30, Akron.

Jeff Hamilton and Paul Locker, both of Akron, are in a hospital recovering from burns. Six others were treated at hospitals and later released.

The fire was noticed about 4 a.m. Although the fire station was less that a block away, the flames had gained such headway that efforts to save the building were in vain.

Four of those who succumbed from suffocation died on the way to the hospital, while another died shortly afterward.

Curtis was burned to death evidently while he slept unaware of the blaze.

The Park Hotel was a four-story brick structure and nominally has about eighty-five roomers, mostly employed in the rubber factories here.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 26 Dec 1928
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!