Youth Assembly Ribbon Discovered

YMCA Advisor's Ribbon

Carlos Hamil

Winecoff fire survivor Richard Hamil recently discovered his father's YMCA advisor's ribbon. Carlos Hamil was the faculty advisor for the eight member 1946 YMCA Youth Assembly delegation from Rome, Ga.

Carlos Hamil kept the ribbon all his life, as he did a sense of guilt that four of his charges died on the tenth floor, even though there was nothing he could have possibly done to help them. The Hamils were trapped on the fifteenth floor until they were rescued by ladder across the alley on the hotel's west side.

And Then There Was One

A hero has passed. The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department's retired Chief of Training Raymond McGill passed away today. A hero of the Winecoff fire and a mentor to hundreds of Atlanta firefighters, Raymond McGill was one hundred years old. More here. Retired Atlanta Fire Department Chief R.B. Sprayberry is now the last living Winecoff firefighter.

 See Final Honor.