Normally, having a heavyweight boxing champ and the president of Baylor University in town would be topics of conversation for weeks.

But the March 28, 1934, appearances of Jack Dempsey and Pat Neff were all but forgotten thanks to downtown Longview's deadliest fire.

The popular Dempsey drew a capacity crowd to referee a boxing program in Longview. That same evening, Neff (a former Texas governor and Baylor president since 1934) spoke to 400 people at First Baptist Church.

The following night, however, the 112-room Hotel Longview caught fire and burned to the ground. Five people died and 20 other hotel guests were injured.

Located at 400 N. Green St., the three-story brick hotel had been erected in 1931 to accommodate the throngs being attracted by discovery of the great East Texas Oil Field. On the fateful night, at least 80 guests were staying in the structure.

Just before midnight on March 29, "The fire of undetermined origin sprang up quickly and spread to all parts of the building," said the Longview Daily News. "Chaos, confusion, near pandemonium broke out among the startled, scantily clad guests."

Dropped baby

A number of guests leaped from upstairs windows to escape the fire.

Guest Lem Prock of Paris said, "I was awakened by a woman screaming. I saw the other wing of the hotel on fire. When the smoke and flames burst into the room, I lowered myself out the window, hanging by my hands to the window sill, and dropped."

With "a wall of flames bearing down upon them," Mrs. Lewis Lacey dropped her 14-month-old son from a third-floor window onto an awning below and then jumped. Both survived with minor injuries.

Doctors, nurses and ambulances from Kilgore, Gladewater and Marshall sped to Longview to aid the rescue efforts. The injured were taken to Longview General Hospital and Markham Sanitarium. Injuries included "a broken neck, broken back, broken limbs and burns."

One bystander said, "Blood was splattered about on walks in front and on the sides of the hotel."

Dying in the fire were Don Sofford, Dallas; Sam Craig, Dallas; and T.D. Jones, Shreveport, La. A fourth victim was Herman R. Yates, whose death "was attributed to a heart attack, induced by fright."

On April 9, the fire claimed its fifth victim with the death of Mrs. H.E. Peck of Shreveport.

'Fire traps'

Old-timers said the blaze reminded them of two earlier downtown conflagrations. In October 1877, much of Longview's central business district was destroyed in a fire. A January 1897 blaze burned six downtown structures, including the First National Bank building.

Within a week, a Gregg County grand jury convened to investigate the tragedy.

On April 1, the Longview Daily News reported the inferno was the result of "an elastic fire code ... the hotel was unsafe. Witnesses said it had only two fire escapes; it had no elevator despite the fact it was a three-story building. The stairways were too narrow for an emergency."

According to one report, the hotel "was a thinly veiled structure on a pine framework." District Judge W.C. Hurst called for fire-code changes because "some buildings erected recently in Longview, Gladewater and Kilgore were little more than fire traps."

On March 30, owners of the Gregg Hotel on Methvin Street announced plans to double capacity to 150 rooms. "The entire hotel will be fireproof and modern throughout," said a hotel representative.

In December 1935, Conrad Hilton bought the enlarged Gregg Hotel and renamed it the Longview Hilton.

Van "Five-Alarm" Craddock's e-mail address is vancraddock@sbcglobal.net