Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-02-14
THE PHILADELPHIA HORROR.
Farther Particular. OF the Burning OF the
Aimshouse.


kilograms:
From all the conflicting accounts to be
obtained, it appears pretty certain that
the first alarm was given by an insane
patient on the first floor Of the main
building. This man-Joseph Nadine
occupied room adjoining the stairway
and the drying-room, with about twenty
other quiet patients. When, about ten
minutes to & o'clock, he saw smoke
issuing from above the door which
opened into the wing in which the cells
were situated, he ran to the big IRON
plated door fronting on the main cOrri-
dor of the building and cried out,
Fire :" This fearful cry reached the
ears of Joseph Shredder, the attendant
Of the ground floor, who was in his
room, directly opposite the one
from which Nadine had given the
alarm. Mrs. Umpstead, who has
general charge at night, says that
it was about o'clock when the alarm
reached her. She was in her office,
about two hundred feet from the dry
room, and at once hurried to the scene.
She says that an attempt was made to
put out the flames with buckets of
water. and at first it was supposed that
the flames were only burning from the
ground floor, near the stairway, but in
almost an instant it was found that the
real point from which the danger came
was the second floor, at the top of and
above the dry-room. She then fastened
to get all the patients from the main
building extending back from the east
wing. Attendant Shredder takes up
the thread Of the story at this point.
and thus relates some of the horrors of
the dreadful night
IL do not know who sounded the
alarm. AS soon as | heard Madness
cry | rushed to the foot of the stair
way, 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 at
once. BY this time the flames were
gathering in fury, and dense vol
umes of smoke were ascending into
the upper stories. | succeeded in
unlocking the doors Of all the cells
on the first floor, and, although with
difficulty in some cases, in getting all
the inmates out. | had no time to look
after them further than to run them into
the ward, for the flames were getting so
fierce that it was almost impossible to
breathe in the now fiercely-burning
building. The 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 on the second 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 stairway and
were creeping along to the cells of the
doomed inmates. We ran around to
the other stairway, near the new build
ings on the west, and by that time some
firemen 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.
LAUGHING AT AND CURSING THE
FLAMES.
1.-The unfortunate occupants of the
cells were being smothered to death by
smoke, and perhaps blistered and
burned by the flames. Their cries
were heartrending. Some of them
cursed and swore; others laughed hid
eously, and others yelled with pain with
such awful cries as would have appalled,
the hardest heart. The firemen, my
self. and a 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 be-
fore we could get them out of the build
ing. We could not see any of the men
in the cells, of course, but could hear
their horrible cries above the roaring of
the flames as they came to realize that
a 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 illuminating
the streets of the city for many squares.
At halfpast o'clock an alarm had
been struck, and in half an hour gen.
eral alarm sounded. When the tiremen
arrived the fire was enveloping about
one third of the main building and burn
ing fiercely. The two plugs in the
yard gave but an Indifferent supply OF
water.
HEROIC EFFORTS OF THE FIREMEN.
Truck + arrived on the scene soon
after the first alarm. and its ladder was
quickly run up to the third floors to the
windows of the cells in which the
maniacs were fastened. With axe and
hook the fremen attacked the iron
gratings of the cells, and succeeded in
taking out seven men, four Of them
suffocated to death and three still
alive. The last man thus res
cued was the notorious g jim Burke,
who has been in the institution over
thirty years. He was brought from the
Easton penitentiary, where he was un-
dergoing life sentence for murder. He
has killed since he has been in the in
sane department cook and two attend
ants. The prisoner who rescued him
states that he died while he was being
taken to the ground. All Of the in
mates Of the insane department were
rescued safely except those in the third
story of the wing in which the fire
originated, the total loss Of life being
eighteen.
DR.. Alice Avery was the only physi-
clan in the building when the fire oc-
Cured. DR.. Richardson, the physician