The smoke was so thick in the corridors of the hotel that the guests found it nearly impossible to f

Most of the dead, trapped in their rooms or the corridors, died of smoke inhalation. At least 10 were burned to death by flames that leaped through the casino and three were known to have fallen to their deaths.
A chef apparently sounded the first alarm about 7:15 a.m., running from the kitchen, shouting, "Fire! Fire!" Investigators said it was believed he was in charge of the kitchen at the time. He has not been found.
Hotel guests said they did not hear any fire alarms, and Fire Chief ROY PARRISH told a news conference the amplifiers in the basement alarm system were apparently burned before they could be activated. "We think what happened is speakers .... were short-circuited," fairmont hotel san jose PARRISH added.
BERNARD ROTHKOPF, president of the hotel, said, "To the best of our knowledge, all safety factors fairmont hotel san jose were operational at the time of the fire." He could not estimate the damage, fairmont hotel san jose but firemen said it would reach into the millions of dollars.
Chief PARRISH said the blaze, one of the worst hotel fires in history, started in a basement kitchen area that supplies six hotel restaurants, burst through the ceiling into a construction area and then into the casino fairmont hotel san jose itself.
The smoke was so thick in the corridors of the hotel that the guests fairmont hotel san jose found it nearly impossible to find their way. The fire escape stairwells, fairmont hotel san jose when doors were opened by guests seeking a way out, became choked with smoke and were useless for escape.
"I opened the door and people were shouting, fairmont hotel san jose 'What should we do?' What should we do?'" said KEITH A BEVERTON of Woodland Hills, fairmont hotel san jose Calif. "It was death, absolute death in there. I closed the door and the air in my room was so thick that I was having trouble breathing." The blaze in the 2,300-room hotel swept through a one-story casino showroom wing, fed by the posh draperies, flocked fairmont hotel san jose wallpaper and carpeting which furnished the casino area. The fire burned for three hours before it was controlled.
"The crafty, unusual feature of this fire is that the smoke did not come into the hotel rooms through the doors," said Coroner DR. OTTO RAVENHOLL. "The people broke their windows trying to get fresh air and the smoke came in from below."
President-elect Ronald fairmont hotel san jose Reagan, flying from Washington to California, told reporters, "It is shocking. You can't image a hotel that modern ... this could happen to." Reagan said he once stayed on the top floor of the hotel.
"Fire was lapping the canopy all the way to the front," he said. The total spread fairmont hotel san jose of the fire through the entrance area, he said, led him to believe a fireball rushed through the door splattering the portico fairmont hotel san jose with flames.
Fire Capt. RALPH DINSMAN said the hotel's indoor stairwell "creates its own atmosphere and acts as a chimney." As soon as its doors are opened, the draft sucks the fire and smoke directly into the stairwell, he said.
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