Authors unlock clues about room key after Atlanta hotel fire

In this Dec. 7, 1946 photo, a woman leaps from an upper story to escape the burning Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta. Seconds later the woman crashed to her death on the hotel marquee. An amateur photographer captured the horror of a woman leaping to escape flames roaring through the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta in 70 years ago, killing 119 people and leading President Truman to call for new fire safety codes nationwide. (AP Photo/Arnold Hardy) In this Dec. 7, 1946 photo, a woman leaps from an upper story to escape the burning Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta. Seconds later the woman crashed to her death on the hotel marquee. An amateur photographer captured the horror of a woman leaping to escape flames roaring through the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta in 70 years ago, killing 119 people and leading President Truman to call for new fire safety codes nationwide. (AP Photo/Arnold Hardy)

By Associated Press December 11, 2016 1 min read

ATLANTA (AP) – The antique, skeleton-type keys on display at the Atlanta History Center are from two separate rooms on the top floor of the Winecoff Hotel, site of the nation’s deadliest hotel fire 70 years ago this month.

The keys, along with a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a woman falling from the burning building, are part of the center’s current exhibit, “Gatheround: Stories of Atlanta.”

The Winecoff blaze, which killed 119 people on Dec. 7, 1946, led to new fire safety codes nationwide.

The keys have raised questions about who might have used them, but research by two authors has uncovered clues about the one for Room 1626.

Authors Sam Heys and Allen Goodwin found that a U.S. Marine from north Georgia was staying in Room 1626 that night.