Savoy Hotel fire
 | |
| Date | 25 December 1975 |
|---|---|
| Venue | Savoy Hotel |
| Location | |
| Type | Fire |
| Deaths | 15 |
| Injuries | 25 |
The Savoy Hotel on Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia was set alight by a serial arsonist on 25 December 1975 with the loss of 15 lives.[1] It was the deadliest hotel fire in Australia at that time.
The fire
[edit]On 25 December 1975 the four story Savoy was packed with local workers and holiday makers. At 5:00 a.m., Reginald John Little, a 25-year-old cook and a petty thief stood at the rear entry door to the basement. He was angry.
He had an arrangement with his Leichardt-based lover Warren to have dinner and stay the night. Warren had stood him up.[1]
As a guest of the hotel he had a key for the back door. Inside, to his right, was a stack of used newspapers. He lit them and went up to his room, number 33.[1] The fire, starved of oxygen, smouldered for half an hour. The night watchman alerted by smoke opened the front door. This resulted in a backdraft with the fire racing to the ground and first floor.[1]
The only internal egress points, the front and rear stairs were impassable due to the heat and smoke.[1]
Out of the 60 guests in the hotel, 15 died, including 5 on the 3rd floor.[1] Many people were found badly burned in their rooms or corridors, some charred beyond recognition.[2][3][4]
Perpetrator
[edit]Prior to the fire in 1975, Reginald Little had been convicted in other arson cases, including setting a shop on fire in New South Wales and setting a billiard table on fire at a club after he had been let go from a job.[1][5]
Little was charged with four counts of murder and a fifth count of maliciously setting fire to a dwelling house knowing the caretaker was in residence.[1] On each of the four murder counts the judge sentenced him (separately) to life imprisonment and ‘penal servitude’ for 14 years from 14 February 1976.[1]
Little was at the low-security St Heliers prison farm where he served as a captain of a New South Wales country bush fire brigade. When there were no fires he did fire reduction work such as burn-offs. The fire control officer in charge had heard rumours that he was an arsonist, but did nothing to confirm this. He was ordered back in full-time custody when Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham was informed in 1993.[6][5]
He was released on parole from Silverwater jail on 12 May 2010, despite never having admitted to the crime.[7][8][9]
Related incident
[edit]The Savoy Hotel was owned by alleged crime boss Abe Saffron. He also owned the building next to it, then housing the Pink Panther strip club with upstairs a brothel called the Kingsdore Motel.[10] In 1989 this building, then the Downunder Hostel, burned down with the loss of six lives.[11] Saffron has been linked to seven other fires.[12] There is no proof he orchestrated any of the rumoured fires.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Plunkett, Geoff (2026). The Burning Desire: The True Stories of Australia's Deadliest Serial Arsonists. Big Sky Publishing. pp. 1, 122, 124, 110, 130, 112, 141, 147, 69. ISBN 9781923514805.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "14 die in hotel holocaust". Sydney Morning Herald. 26 December 1975. p. 1. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Australia: 14 People Die in Christmas Day Hotel Fire | Archive Footage". ITN Source. 27 December 1975. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ Janet, By (13 May 2010). "The burning desire that left 15 people dead". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ a b Marks, Kathy (5 April 2014). "Arsonist who killed 15 worked for fire service in prison release". The Independent. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ Kennedy, Les (24 April 2010). "Murderer gets parole after 34 years in jail". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ "25.12.75". Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Fire Practice For Savoy Arsonist". Bush Fire Brigades. 24 April 1993. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ Les Kennedy (25 April 2010). "Murderer gets parole after 34 years in jail". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Across Border Kings Cross Blog". Mydarlinghurst.blogspot.com. 30 May 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "Niece links Abe Saffron to Luna Park deaths". The Sydney Morning Herald. 26 May 2007.
External links
[edit]- Plunkett, Geoff (2026). The Burning Desire: The True Stories of Australia's Deadliest Serial Arsonists. Big Sky Publishing.
- Resilience NSW
- [2]
- 1975 disasters in Australia
- 1975 murders in Australia
- 1970s fires in Oceania
- Arson in 1975
- Hotel arson attacks
- Attacks on hotels in Australia
- Building and structure arson attacks in Australia
- Murder in Sydney
- 1970s in Sydney
- December 1975 in Australia
- Kings Cross, New South Wales
- 1975 mass murders
- 20th-century mass murders in Australia
- Attacks on buildings and structures in 1975