The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-19
Courageous Conduct of the officials and At
tendants-The Fire Caused by Careless
ness in Constructing the Furnaces.
AN ASYLUM HORROR.
Burning Of an Infrmary Building-Seventeen
Lives Lost.

man. Seventeen patients missing and thir-
teen bodies have been recovered They are
burned beyond recognition All the patients
were infrm and ncurable. The bedridden ones
were rescued first; those who were able to help
themselves did not realize the danger, and they
were the ones who perished. The attendants
| lost their personal effects, and many narrowly
escaped with their lives, one of them
having to tie bed clothes together to es-
cape. There were no facilities for
putting out fire. the State not having made any
appropriation. The building was new one,
and cost about $40, 600. 1t is total wreck. The
following persisted:
Henry Brown, of Rock Island.
Fl. w. Belden, of Galesburg.
George Bennett of Morris
Joseph Colbert, of Chicago.
Orland Ellis, of Pontiac.
J. w. Galloway, of Mscoupin.
Thomas Hickey, of Springfield
Matthew Hogue, of Chebanse.
/. Hackner, of Stevenson county.
Thomas Hereby of Chicago
John Johnson, Of Vermiion.
Michael Jordan of Chicago.
j. Nathan, of Chicago.
A. Ranyard, of Winnebago county.
c. Strotz, of Chicago.
j. w. Taylor. of Chicago.
p Weymouth, of Putnam county
Thomas Hereby was brother of State Senator
Hereby. The building was two-story stone
and brick, with no wood about it except the
floors and stairways. 1t was completed last
August 1t was used as an infirmary, and con-
tanned forty -fve insane inmates, twenty three on
the first floor, and twenty-five on the second
! Attendants Brown, Rose and wife were sleeping
on the second floor; attendants Reed and
| Williams, and fireman Labarge slept on the first
floor. The building was heated by hot-air fur
naces. The temperature was II degrees below
zero. When the watchman, man named Cobb,
discovered smoke issuing from the floor immedi-
ately above the furnaces, he awoke the at
| tendants The esmoke was at once drawn through
the hotair fues and along the halls and stair
ways to all parts of the building The fire
spread so rapidly that all efforts to save the
| building, in the absence of fire. alarm to sum-
mon help, and for want of facilities to quench
the fames were found to be in vain
| Attendant w. A. Reed began dragging aud
| carrying out the patients Many of the patients
were clad in their night clothing only, and
rushed from the bitter cold air back into the
building. Reed, at the risk Of his own life,
struggled on until twenty-one of his twenty
three patients were rescued, when he became ex-
hausted and was carried away.
| On the second floor, attendants Rose and
wife heard the alarm and escaped down the
stairway just before it fell Attendant Brown,
sleeping on the same floor, was awakened by the
smoke and attempted to save patient in an ad-
joining ROOM but failed. and, sliding down by
means of sheet from his window, jumped to
| the ground.
| Superintendent R. s. Dewey reached the
scene, and with ladders climbed to the second
story windows, smashed the windows and was
able to save some patients thereby. Almost all
| the patients refused to cooperate in the efforts
being made to save them, and were only res
cued by being dragged from the flames and
| forcibly prevented from returning.
marvellous escape was that of an inmate
who fell with the second floor, struck the
| burning debris above the furnace and
bounded through window to the ground. un
injured. The remains of the bodies of twelve
| patients have been taken from the ruins burned
to fragments, and only to he identified by the To-
| cation in which they were found The remains
| of the dead thus identified, with their ages and
residences, were the subject of coroner's in
quest this afternoon.
| Superintendent Dewey had asked the Legisla-
ture, two years ago, for s., 500 to protect these
\ detached wards from fire, but only 81, 600 was
allowed, all of which was used in mains and
| hydrants, and the amount was insufficient to
answer the purposes. He suggested that the
| floor above the hot-air furnaces be changed it
| being shown in evidence that it was but four
| inches from the outside and ten inches from the
inside of the furnace to the pine iosts. He gave
! two reasons for the great number OF
| deaths First, the patients were almost
all suffocated by smoke before they
could be reached, and second, inability or unwil-
ingness of the insane patients to help themselves.
| The remains of the bodies, with one exception
did not aggregate each but little more than a
handful of charred ashes. The entire remains
Of ten of the victims were spread on a small ia
| bic two feet square. Friends are arriving in
search of lost ones, and the scenes on their ar
rive, and when they view the remains, are nee
essarily very heartrendng kilograms are
| pouring in from all parts of the State from par
| ties asking as to the safety of their friends
among the 1900 inmates of the hospital
The coronors jury, which adjourned until to