Edward Montaño, a retired Tucson Fire Department captain who battled the historic Pioneer Hotel fire in 1970 — causing him to focus his career on fire prevention — died March 29 of complications from several falls. He was 88.
Montaño died at home under hospice care, said Margaret Montaño, Ed’s wife of 27 years.
“We were best friends for many, many years before we married,” said Margaret. “I will always remember his kindness, fairness, strength and loyalty. He took care of his six siblings, his mother and grandmother until they passed,” said his wife.
During the Pioneer Hotel fire, Margaret recalled her husband telling her that he was told at one point to go to an area “where burn victims and cadavers” were being brought out of the hotel and he was to direct where the victims would be taken by ambulances to the hospitals, and where the dead bodies were taken to be picked up.
Montaño was sent into the hotel after the blaze was put out and he found out there was no sprinkler system, and the stairwells had no fire doors, which was the reason the fire spread so quickly. “That was when he decided prevention was more important than the aftermath of a tragedy,” recalled Margaret Montaño.
The fire broke out on the fourth floor of the 11-story building just before midnight on Dec. 19, 1970, and flames raced up the floors trapping many guests in their rooms. Exits were locked to prevent thefts, and firetruck ladders were too short to reach the higher floors, causing children and adults to jump from windows to their deaths to escape the searing heat, according to a 2013 Arizona Daily Star news article. Others burned to death in their rooms, and most died of carbon-monoxide poisoning while waiting to be rescued. In total, 29 died, including one victim who died months later in a hospital, states the article.
A firefighter on a fully extended ladder sprays water on the Pioneer Hotel during the blaze in 1970. Rescuers couldn't reach those trapped on the upper floors.
“The Pioneer Hotel fire was one of the most tragic fires in Tucson history,” said former TFD firefighter Mike McKendrick, who is chairman of the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation. “That fire led Ed into a career that made changes such as sprinklers in buildings and safe stairwells. He worked to enforce the fire codes and is known for his work in the fire prevention division,” said McKendrick.
Margaret Montaño said the burn victims and the deaths stayed in her husband’s mind forever. “That is why he believed fire prevention was so important. He could not believe there were no fire sprinklers in high rises in Tucson,” said Margaret Montaño of her husband who climbed the ranks becoming inspector in 1974 and captain in 1980. He had more than a dozen fire inspectors under him. He retired in 1986.
Montaño joined the Tucson Retired Firefighters Association and he was among a core of members’ efforts to restore a 1954 Mack pumper fire truck found in a salvage yard on the city’s south side in the mid-1980s. It originally was a Long Beach California Fire Department truck that was retired and brought to Tucson in 1984 by a previous owner and parked at the salvage yard. The firefighters association purchased the truck through a donation by a local businessman in 2005, and members went to work raising funds and manpower to restore the historic truck into a “Last Alarm” hearse for public safety personnel in Arizona. It took the retired firefighters 10 years to completely restore the truck.
McKendrick said Montaño was a past president and founding board member of the Last Alarm Foundation and will be carried on the Last Alarm fire truck for his funeral services. The truck will be driven by Montaño’s nephew, Station 8 firefighter Billy Eyrich Jr.
Tucson Fire inspector Ed Montaño
Montaño was born March 15, 1934 at the downtown Stork’s Nest, a maternity home that provided a safe option for labor and delivery. It operated from the 1920s through the 1940s. He graduated from Tucson High School in the early 1950s, and after graduation he joined the Navy serving on the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. Once he was honorably discharged in 1959, Montaño joined the Tucson Fire Department.
In addition to his wife, Montaño is survived by a stepson and stepdaughter, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be Thursday, April 21, at Santa Cruz Catholic Church, 1220 S. Sixth Ave., starting with a 10 a.m. viewing followed by a 10:30 a.m. funeral Mass. Burial will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery at 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Donations can be made in memory of Montaño to The Last Alarm Foundation, P.O. Box 18408, Tucson, AZ 85731.
Photos of the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire in downtown Tucson
The Pioneer Hotel never recovered from the 1970 fire, said Bettina Lyons, niece of the couple who owned the hotel. "Even though they put money into it and put sprinkler systems in, people did not come to stay."
Victims are removed from the front entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
A injured firefighter is wheeled to an ambulance at the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
In the end, the Pioneer Hotel fire killed 29 people, some of them jumping from windows to escape the flames. Louis Taylor was convicted of arson. The first articles ran in the Star Dec. 20, 1970.
The Pioneer Hotel in 1961.
Firefighters on an old Tucson Fire ladder truck help a woman down from the upper floors during the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
A firefighter sprays water on windows of the upper floors of the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
A man stands at the window on one of the upper floors of the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970, as the fire rages above.
A firefighter helps an unidentified man after plucking him from a room near the top of the Pioneer International Hotel which caught fire early in Dec. 1970.
Tucson firefighers apply a steady stream of water during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970. Tucson's firefighting equipment was ruled inadequate following this fire when they were unable to aid many trapped on the higher floors.
Flames and smoke shoot from the windows in the upper floors during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970.
Flames and smoke shoot from the windows in the upper floors as firefighters extend the ladder to save those below during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970.
Victims are removed from the front entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Victims are removed from the front the entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Smoke billows from the upper floor of the Pioneer International Hotel as three firemen work to rescue survivors of the early-morning blaze. The firemen at the bottom is helping an elderly Pioneer tenant to walk down the ladder.
Fireman help the injured at the Pioneer Hotel blaze in Dec. 1970.
A hotel patron is helped down the ladder to safety during the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
Pioneer Hotel Fire
Tucson firefighters climb a ladder at the Pioneer Hotel Fire in 1970. Courtesy of Tucson Fire Department
Tucson firefighters help an elderly patron down the ladder at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
G.L. Scoggins, catering manager, talks to exhausted Tucson firefighers at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
An exhausted Tucson firefighter at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
People draped in blankets outside the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson after a fatal fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
People in downtown Tucson gaze up at the Pioneer Hotel the morning after the deadly fire in Dec. 1970.
People in downtown Tucson gaze up at the Pioneer Hotel the morning after the deadly fire in Dec. 1970.
Aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
The aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
The bedroom suite at the Pioneer Hotel kept by the Steinfelds, owners of Steinfelds Department Store. The couple died in the massive hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
Aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Funeral of victims of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
Louis Taylor in 1970. Taylor was tried and convicted of 28 counts of felony murder in connection with the fire at the Pioneer Hotel, Tucson.
Arizona prison inmate Louis C. Taylor, serving a life sentence after being convicted in the deaths of 28 people in the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire. A 29th person died later of injuries from the fire.
Louis Taylor shakes the hand of his first attorney from 1972, Howard Kashman, back to camera, as his current defense team from Phoenix surrounds him after a hearing in Pima County Superior Court in Tucson, Ariz. on Tuesday April 2, 2013. Taylor, who was originally convicted of 28 counts of felony murder in connection with the fire, was released from prison after 42 years.
