The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1885-02-18
Burned Alive.
A HORRIBLE HOLOCAUST IN FHlLApElFHlA-
AN INSANE AsYi UNI DESTROYED AND
EIGHTEEN PATIENTS BURNED

AN INSANE ASYLUM DESTROYED AND
EIGHTEEN PATIENTS BURNED
IN THEIR CELLS.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb IL. Eighteen raw
Ing maniacs were burned to death 10 the
Insane Department of Black'ey Almshouse
on the west side of the Schuylkill River,
tonight, In q connagration which needed
nothing to make 1t the most horrible disas.
ter of the Kind ever Known 10 the history
Of the city. The fire originated In the
wing of the old building of the Insane De-
partment of Blackley, which fronts toward
the Schuylkil River and directly east OF
the main building of the Alms-house. This
wing is l15 feet front and GO feet deep,
connected on the south with the main
building of the old structure of the Insane
Department, which runs south 400 feet to
similar wing to the one in which the disas-
ter occurred.
In the north building, where the fire
broke out, there were go separate cells for
violent patients, twenty on each floor. In
addition to this there was large room on
each of the three floors In which cots for
twelve men were placed, all of which were
occupied when the Ore broke out. On the
second floor opposite the Genital cell of
| low of separate cells on the north side of
the corridor, was the dry room, heated by
| steam. This room, which was about ten
| feet square, was directly alongside the
middle stairway leading to the floor above
| and below. Here the flames originated,
| but from what cause Is not known. At the
| time there were insane patients 10 each OF
| the twenty cells on each of the three floors
ten 10 the large room on the first floor and
twelve In each OF the large rooms on the
second and third floors.
| From all the conflicting accounts to be
obtained it appears pretty certain that the
first alarm was given by an insane patient
| in the first floor Of the main building.
This man. Joseph Nadine, occupied the
room adjoining the stairway and drying
| rooms, with about 20 other quiet patients,
when, about ten minutes to eight O'Clock
| be saw smoke issuing from above the door
which opened into the wing In which the
cells were situated. He promptly gave the
alarm by shouting fire. Joseph Shredder,
the attendant Of the ground floor, who was
in the room directly opposite the one from
which Nadine had given the alarm says :
|
| the foot of the stairway and after short
attempt to check the fire at once set to
work to get out the patients.
"First l unlocked the door Of the room
in which Nadine and his companions were.
| They ran out at once. BY this time the
flames we're gathering in fury and dense
volumes Of smoke were ascending into the
upper stories. l succeeded in unlocking
the doors of all the cells on the first floor,
slthough with difficulty, and succeeding, in
some cases, in getting all the inmates out.
had not time to look after item further
than to run them into the yard, for the
flames were getting so fierce 1t was almost
impossible to breath In the now tiercely
burning building. The smoke in the upper
stories was so thick that breathing was i'm
possible. While l was getting the men
out below, attendant VIM. Strain was do.
Ing the same for the inmates on the second
floor.
II met Hannah, night Waterman, who
was also helping, and we went up to the
third story, but were driven back by the
flames, which had forced their way through
the stairway and were creeping along to
the cells of the doomed inmates. We ran
around to the other stairway near the new
building on the west, and by that time
some fremen had arrived. All the inmates
had been gotten out Of the second story, so
that there remained about % on the third
foor-20 in cells and In a large common
room on the west end.
"The unfortunate occupants of the cells
were being smothered to death by smoke
and perhaps blistered and burned by the
flames. Their cries were heart-rending.
Some of them cursed and swore, others
laughed hideously, and others yelled with
pain with such awful cries as would have
appalled, the hardest heart. The fremen
/ and myself and patient named Rafferty,,
| crawled on our hands and knees to such of
the men as we could reach end dragged ont
fourteen, eight of them alive, four suf ,cat-
ed to death and two so horribly burned that
they died before We could get them out of
the building. We could not see any men
III the cells, but could hear their horrible
cries above the roaring of the flames.
While Schroeder was going through this
terrible experience the flames were extend
ing to the main building of the Depart
ment. The wing in which the victims we're
burned alive was wrapped in flames, which
were shooting many feet into the air and
Illuminated the city for many squares. At
half.past eight O'Clock an alarm had been
struck and in half an hour a general alarm
sounded. When the firemen arrived the
fire was enveloping about one-third of the
main building and burning fercely.
Truck f. arrived on the scene soon after
the first alarm and its ladd was quickly
run up to the third floor to the windows OF
the cells 10 which the maniacs were fas-
tened With axe and hook the firemen at
tackled the iron gratings of the cells and
succeeded in taking out seven men, four
sufocated to death and three still alive.
All Of the inmates of the insane depart
ment were rescued safely, except those in
the third story of the wing in which the
fire originated, the loss of life being eigh-
teen.