The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-01-22
ArERRIRIE FIRE.
BornAnE OF tbs IIlIDoAs Hospital for the
InsSns-ThrillinR 1netdents-FEighsful

a TERRIBLE FIRE.
Barnlng OF tbs IIIIDoIs Hospital for the
Inssne-ThrillinS Decentralization
Deaths.
One of those frightfui holocausts in
which are destroyed sick and helpless
human beings occurred at Kankakee,
Illinois, on Sunday. The following are
the particulars Of the dreadful affair:
The building was without facilities OF
any kind for putting out fire except =
limited water supply obtained from tau-
GELS in the bathrooms. Il was evident
from the moment of the discovery of the
IRE that the building was doomed. and
In the brief time in which Ii remained
habitable efforts were directed 20 the
succor of patients, The furnace fues
carried volumes of emoke into the sec
ond story, in which tWenty-one patients
and three attendants were domiciled,
densely filing the upper portion OF the
building before those on the lower story
had been removed. OF the twenty tour
persons on the floor
FIFTEEN MET THEIR DEATH
before they could be reached. Mr.. and
Mrs. NJ. Rose, attendants on the fatal
| floor, escaped by the stairway in theiE
night clathes. They were the first per-
sons who used this avenue Of escape
and were the last. for q moment
later the stairway fell with q crash into
the seething mass of flames which envel-
Oped that portion of the building.
Several patients were rescued from the
upper floor by means of ladders raised
to the WIndoWs. Superintendent Dewy
was the first to ascend, breaking ont sew
eral windows with his naked hands and
assisting two patients to escape. At a
nun Der of the windows first reached
| with the ladders such dense volumes of
smoke poured out as soon as the glass
| was broken in that it was an imposslb bill
iiy to enter. Attendant Harry Brown on
this floor states that he was awakened
by q sense of suffocation, fOuHd his room
| full OF smoke and on opening the door
into the hall was barely able TO see
gas-jet ten feet away. He escaped by
tying bed sheets together and letting
himself out of q window and dropping
fifteen or twenty feet to the ground
without receiving injury. Ali the twen-
ty-One inmates on the frst floor except
two were saved.
Many of the patients on the first floor
were removed by main force, and as
soon as liberated ran back iAto the
building. In some instances this was
repeated three or four times
Attendant Reid is accredited
with having saved twentY-four
patients, and q cOnvalescent patient
named John COynes rescued four He
was one of the last persons TO leave the
building alive, returning after the last
patient crawling on his hands and knees
to escape the impenetrable smoke
Patient Hague, who lost his life on the
second floor, refused to follow TWO of
he IaddnH
instant later disappeared from sight,
overcome bv suffocation.
THE FIRE SPREAD so RAPIDLY
that all efforts to save the building, in
the absence of fire alarm to summon
help and tor want of facilities to Quench
the flames, were found t. be in vain At
Iendant W. A. Reid began dragging and
carrying out the patients. Many
patients. clad IN night cloihlng only,
rushed from the bitter cold air back into
the building Reid, at the risk of his
own life, struggled on until twenty OF
his twenty-fOur patients were rescued,
when he became exhausted and was car
ried away. On the second floor Attend
ant Re sc and wife heard the alarm and
escaped down the stairway just before it
fell. AtIendant Brown, sleeping on the
same floor, was awakened by the smoke
joining room but failed, and sliding
down by means of sheet from his win.
dow and jumped to the ground. Super
intendent R. 8. Dewey reached the scene
and, with ladders. elm bed to the second
story windows, smashed the windows
and was able to rescue some patients.
Almost all the patients refused 10 coop
crate in the efforts being made to save
them, and were only rescued by being
dragged from the fl.mts aud forcIbIy
prevented from returning.
A MARVELLOUS ESCAPE
was that of an inmate who fell with the
second floor, struck the burning debris
above the furnace AID bounded through
a widow to the ground unIDjured.
81. w. Belden, aged 80, OF Galesburg.
one of the victims. and the only one
whose remains preserved even the SEM
blance of a human being, was q promi
Dent man In his section OF the state He
was ON the second floor. was an invalid
and was unable to help himself Super
iutendent Dewey, aided by an attendant,
placed ladder to his window. Dewey
assembled and broke the glass with bis
hands. but being unable to break the
sash descended for some implement to
break 1t with. Meanwhile Belien's
shrieks for help were loud and agoDiz-
died away, and the smoke and flames
poured from the windows so that no
help could be gwen him.
DR.. Dewey, bearing calls for help from
another window, hurried TO the rescue,
and, though a man of light build, drag
ged q $780, poun1 patient through the
window and bore him safely 10 the
ground.
1t is probable that all the victims lost
their lives by suffocation. The building
destroyed is one of the new detached
wards erected last season. II was built
Of stone, but was not intended to be fire.
proof It was heated, as are most of the
detached wards, by Ruttan furnaces, of
which there we're tour in the building
The fire originated in the floor above one
of these furnaces The top of the fur
mace is covered by plate of boiler iron.
upon which are laid two courses of
brick set in plaster. Between the brick
and the wooden floor joists is sIx-inch
chamber. It was IN the original plan
to heat all the building with steam, but
an insufficient appropriation by the leg
islature compelled the substitution of
furnaces. The building and its con-
tents were valued at between $40, 600 and
$25, 600.
The burned building was used a. an
u
unable, from sickness. TO walk.
TINE ONLY CHANCE FOR OBTAINING WA
TER
was from the small washs' and faucets,
net even fire buckets or barrels being on
hand.
While the fire was progressing pa
| tIents in the Other wards near by be-
came nearly frantic in their efforts tH
| get out to the f1re Some were weeping
pIteOusly, others praying, and others
screaming with alarm and calling for
friends they knew u be In the burIng
building.
There is strong feeling among the
| people of Kankakee that an InvestiRa-
! ton, thorough and exhaustive, should
be made OF the CAUSES of the terrible de
| structiOn of life and property.
The corOner's jury are we'll known
citizens, and promise careful considera-
| ton before rendering verdict.
The Dodge city Fire.
DODGE CRY, Kas., Jan. 10 Fire yes
terday destroy ed the postoffice block