The Savoy Hotel on Darlinghurst Road in the Kings Cross area of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia burned down on 25 December 1975 with the loss of 15 lives. It was the deadliest hotel fire in Australia at that time.

The fire

On 24 December 1975 the five story Savoy was packed with local workers and holiday makers. At about 5:00 a.m., Reginald John Lyttle, a 25-year-old

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

and a

petty thief Theft is the act of taking another person's property or Service (economics), services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal sho ...

with aspirations of making it into the news, came back from an unhappy night out. He was a guest of the hotel and let himself in through the back door. He found a stack of newspapers inside the hotel, set them on fire near the rear door at about 5:30 a.m., and went up to his room. The fire quickly spread up through the two staircases, trapping 60 people upstairs and blocking off the two

fire escape A fire escape is a special kind of emergency exit, usually mounted to the outside of a building or occasionally inside but separate from the main areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of a fire or other emergency th ...

s. The first call to emergency services was at 5:38 a.m. Guests fled upstairs where they had a choice between jumping multiple floors down or waiting it out in smoke filled rooms. One woman threw her baby from a five meter high window and then jumped out herself, to be caught by firefighters. Many people were trapped inside up to 30 minutes before firefighters could bring in a hydraulic platform to get them out. At the end of the day, out of the 60 guests in the hotel, 15 died and 25 were seriously injured. Many people were found badly burned in their rooms, some charred beyond recognition.

Perpetrator

Prior to the fire in 1975, Reginald Lyttle 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. On 25 November 1976, Lyttle was sentenced to four terms of

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

for the murder of four people plus 14 years for maliciously setting fire to the hotel, his sentence was later re-determined with a non-parole period of twenty-eight years. Convicted for 5 more arson cases, Little was at the low-security St Heliers prison farm where he served as a captain of a

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

country

bush fire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

brigade. When there were no fires he did fire reduction work, like burn-offs. The fire control officer in charge had heard rumors 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. He was released on parole from Silverwater jail on 12 May 2010, even though he refused to admit to the crime.

Related incident

The Savoy Hotel was owned by alleged crime boss Abe "the boss of the Cross" Saffron. He also owned the building next to it, then housing the Pink Panther

strip club A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other Erotic dancing, erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or Bar (establishment), bar style, and can also ...

with upstairs a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

called the Kingsdore Motel. In 1989 this building, then the Downunder Hostel, burned down with the loss of six lives. Saffron has been linked to seven other fires.

References

External links

Resilience NSW

{{hotel fires 1975 disasters in Australia Fires in Australia 1970s fires in Oceania 1975 fires Hotel fires Arson in Australia Murder in Sydney 1970s in Sydney December 1975 events in Australia Kings Cross, New South Wales