The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-02-25
AN ASYLUM HORROR.
Many Lunatics Burned to Death
in Philadelphia.
Unable to Help Themselves, They
Perish in the Flames

Many raving maniacs were burned to death
in the insane department at Blockley aims
house, Philadelphia, in q c~onaagration which
needed nothing to make it the most hor-
rible disaster Of the kind ever known in
the history Of the city. The fire origin
ated in the wing Of the old building
of the insane department which fronts
toward the Schuylkil river and directly
east Of the main building Of the almshouse.
In the north building where the fire broke
out there were sixty separate cells for violent
enthusiastically on each floor. In addition to
floors in which cots for twelve men were
placed, all Of which were occupied when the
fire broke out.
At the time there were insane patients in
each of the twenty cells OF these three floors,
ten in the larger room of the first floor and
twelve in each of the large rooms on the Sec
ond and third floors.
From all tho conflicting accounts to he OBJ
tanned it appears pretty certain that the hrnt
alarm was given by an insane patient on the
first floor Of the main building. This man,
Joseph Nadine, occupieda room adjoining the
stairway and the drying room with about
twenty other quiet patients, when about $50
O'Clock no saw smoke issuing from above
the door which opened into the wing
in which the cells were situated. He ron to
the big iron.gratei door fronting on the main
corridor Of the building and cried out "Fire!"
This fearful sound reached the ears OF Joseph
Shredder, the attendant of the ground floor,
who was in his room directly opposite the one
from which Nadinaha given the alarm.
Attendant Shredder thus relates somes Of
the horrors of the dreadful night: Gas SOON
as / heard Madness cry I rushed to the foot
of the stairway, and after O short attempt to
check the fire, at once set to work to get out
tho 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 were gathering in fury. and dense
volumes Of smoke Were ascending into the
upper stories. l succeeded in unlocking the
doors Of all the cells OH the first floor and OIL
though with difficulty in some cases, in get
ting all the inmates out. I had no time to
look after them further than to run them
into tho yard, for the flames were get
ting so fierce that it was almost
impossible to breathe in the now fercely
burning building. The smoke In the upper
stories was 80 thick that breathing was I'M
possible. While I was getting the men out
below, the attendant, William Strain, was
doing the Same for the inmates Of the second
floor. I met Mr.. Hanna, the night watch
man, who was also helping, and we went up
10 the third story, but were driven back by
the flames, which had forced
their way through the stairway and
were ,1st creeping e. along Ean a to the cells ta s6 Of t osSs do stnirl
way, near the new buildings on the west, and
by that time some flcelnen had arrived. All
the inmates had been gotten out OF the second
story, so that there remained about twenty
eight on the third floor, twenty in the cells
and eight in the large common room on the
west end.
1.-THE unfortunate occupants Of the cells
were being smothered to death by the smoke
and perhaps blistered and burned by the
flames. Their cries were heartrending. Some
of them cursed and swore, others laughed
heedlessly, and others yelled with pain. with
such awful cries as would have appalled, the
hardest heart. The fremen, myself and q
patient named Rafferty,, crawled on our hands
and knees to such Of the men as we could reach
and dragged out fourteen eight of them alive,
four suffocated to death and two SO horribly
burned that they died before we could get
them out of the building. We could not see
any Of the men in the cells OF course, but
could hear their horrible cries above the roar
ing Of the flames as they came to realize what
q horrible fate was in store for them"
While Shredder was going through this
terrible experience the flames were extending
to the main building Of the department. The
wing in which the victims were being burned
alive was wrapped in flames, which were
shooting many feet into the air and lllumlnat-
ing tho city.
At midnight twenty-seven dead bodies
had been taken out, and it was then estimated
by the superintendent that the death list
would foot up TO seventy-fve. The fire was
in full blast before an alarm was sounded.
lHo,L ona IF fl,o RTf iNm0tas seemed to he
driven wild, and no words could describe
their actions. There were no women in the
new wing, and not many sick men in tho
hospital wards. The women occupied
rooms ami cells in the main house
fronting on tho hollow square, and
except those vino were locked in all were res
cued, Nearly all the lives were lost in the
immediate neighborhood Of the stairway. at
the foot of which the fire started. No lives
were lost on the first and not more than half
a dozen on the second floor, but few OF the
inmates of the rooms and cells on the third
floor, and the junction Of the buildings, es-
caped. The open shaft, surrounded by the
stairs, formed o perfect draughtway through
which the flames fairly raised to the upper
part Of the house. .
The GIG inmates who were turned out OF
the various wards were, as far as possible,
and as soon as could be, provided for in the
ont wards and other parts OF the almshouse.
Many Of them, however, escaped into the city
and wandered about the streets, where some
were captured by the police and either returned
to the institution or locked up in the station
houses. The bulk Of them were taken to the
hospital, and a large number were placed in
the clinical lecture room Of the hospital. The
women were slowed about the hospital as rar
as possible, and all were finally cared for:
Among the dead is James Burke, who killed
three of the inmates of the institution in the
twenty-five years he was confined there.
For twenty years his hands were chained to
his body. Herriges, another victim, was the
man who was discovered in 1870 in a Phil.
adelphia shanty, where he had been confined
in chains by his parents for twenty years