St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-02-19
Twenty-fve Maniacs Burned
With Philadelphia Almshouse.

HORRIBLE DETAILS oF.rHE DISASTER.
I Eighteen maniacs were burned te
death In the insane department oI
BiackleY aimshouse ut Philadelphia
+ Thursday night in contlagration
which needed nothing to make it the
most horrible disaster OF the kind ever
known in the history of the city The
/ fire started in the wiug of the old
building of the insane department In
this north building whore the fire broke
/ out there were 90 separate cells fol
violent patients, 2D ON each floor In
addition to this there was a large room
OH each of the three floors ia whiel
cots for 10 new beds were placed, all o.
. which were occupied when the fire
broke out. At the time there were. ia,
sane patients in each of the Oh cells OF
these three floors; 10 in the large room
on the first floor and II in each of the
large rooms on the second and third
! floors.
! The first alarm was given by an in
sane patient on the first floor of the
main building. This man, Joseph Ma
! dine, about 10 minutes to O'clock saw
smoke issuing from above the douI
which opened into the wing in which
| the cells were situated. He ran to the
big iron. grated door fronting ON the
main corridor OF the building and cried
out, "Firei' This fearful sound reached
the ears of Joseph Shroeder, the at
tendant of the ground floor, who was
III his room directly opposite the one
from which Nadine had given the
alarm. lie says, "As soon as heard
Nadine. cry rushed 10 the foot of the
stairway, and after short attempt to
check the fire. at once set to work TO
get out the patients. First / unlocked
the door of the room in which Nadine
and his companions were. They ran
out ut once. BY this time the flames
were gathering fury and dense volumes
Of smoke were ascending into the mp
per stories. | succeeded in unlocking
the doors of ;ll the cells on the first
floor although with difficulty, and in
some cases got all the inmates out.
had no time to look after them further
than to run them into the yard, for the
flames We're getting so fierce that it
was almost impossible To breath in the
now tiercely burning building. Fhe
smoke in the upper stories was so thick
that breathing was impossible. While
was getting the men out below, the
attendant, William Strain, was doing
the same for the inmates of the econd
floor. met Mr.. Hanna. the 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 stair
way and were creeping along to the
cells of the doomed inmates. All the
inmates had been gotten out of the
second story, so that there remained
about % on the third floor, 20 in the
cells and eight in the large common
room i'll the west end"
The occupants of the 10 cells in ward
NJ near where the fire first started, are
all supposed to have been suffocated
OF burned to death with the exception
of three who were rescued by the fire
men. The unfortunate occupants of
the cells We're smothered to death by
the smoke and blistered and burned by
the flames. Their cries were heart
rending.
The fireman, Shredder, and patient
named Rafferty, crawl led on their hands
and knees To such of the men as they
could reach aud dragged out II, eight
of them alive, four suffocated to death,
and two so horribly burned that they
died before they could be got out of
the building.