Skip to product information
1 of 1

Arizona Daily Star

Pioneer Hotel Fire

Pioneer Hotel Fire

Regular price $2.99 USD
Regular price Sale price $2.99 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Quantity
The Pioneer Hotel, built in 1929, was supposed to be "absolutely fireproof." On Dec. 20, 1970, it was learned this absolutely was not the case.
As revelers celebrated an early Christmas on the lower two floors, a fire swept through the upper floors. Ultimately 29 people died as a result of the fire, many of them because they jumped to their deaths to avoid being burned. The fire has long been described as the worst tragedy in Tucson and one of the worst in Arizona, especially in modern times. Now, the Arizona Daily Star's ongoing history blog and e-book series Tales from the Morgue — the "morgue" is the archive of a newspaper — presents the story of the Pioneer Hotel fire as it unfolded in its news pages for Tucsonans over the last four decades, including most recently the release of Louis C. Taylor who spent 42 years in prison for those deaths.
View full details