Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-06
A MAD.HousE r

A MAD-HOUSE HORROR.
Tho Insane VIM of the Philadelphia
Alm.-HouseD Destroyed by Ffre-EtEhteen
Mantacs Known to Have Lost Their Lives
-seycnty.Five Inmates Missing.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa, Feb. 13.-Eighteen
ravine maniacs were burned to death in the
insane department of the Blockley aims
house last night in a contlagration, when
needed nothing 10 make it the most horrl-
Bile disaster of the kind i'll the history OF the
CITY. The fire originated in a wing Oh
the old building, which fronts to-
ward the Schuylkill River, and dl-
rectlv east of the main building.
There were sixty separate cells for violent
patients, twenty OH each floor. In addition
| to this there was a large room OH each moor
| in which cells for one hundred and twenty
five men were placed. All OF these were
/ occupied when the fire broke out. On
the second floor was the dry-room, heated
by steam, and here the flames originated,
but from what cause is now not
known. 1t appears pretty certain that the
first alarm was given by an insane patient
on the first floor of the main building. Tins
man. Joseph Nadine, saw smoke issuing
from above a door which opened into the
wing in which the cells were situated. He
ran to a big iron-grated door fronting on
| the main corridor and cried out fire!
Attendant Shredder thus relates some of
| the horrors of the dreadful night: las
| soon as l heard Nadine cry l rushed to the
| stairway, and after a short attempt to check
| the fire at once set to work to get out the
patients. First l unlocked the door OF the
room i'll which Nadine and his companions
were. They ran out at once. BY this time
the flames were gathering in fury, and adj
verse volumes of smoke We're ascending
into the upper stories. | succeeded in UNI
locking the doors Of all the cells on the first
| floor and got the inmates out. l had no
| time to look after them, for the flames
| were getting so fierce that it was almost inn
possible to breathe in the tiercely burning
building. The smoke i'll the upper stories
was so thick that breathing was
impossible. While I was getting the men
out below Attendant Williamsstrain was
doing the same for those on the second
and we went up to the third story, but
were driven back by the flames which
forced their way through the stairway and
were creeping along to the cells of the
inmates. We ran around to the
other stairway, and by that time some
of the tiremen had arrived. All the i'll
mates 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 at the
west end.
The following are the names and ages Of
those who are supposed to have been sutfo-
Gated or burned to death:
Frank D. Dehacon, james Mccoy. John Ly-
Thomas iiusk, Michael Wroth, Robert Gun
ninghum, Charles Nolenbcrgcr, Thomas Jones,
John koehler, Thomas Smith, Edward MUIR
ply, Charles OBricn, Philip Newbergcr, John
Herrigcs the man who was discovered in 1870
i'll Il shunty ut Fourth and Lombard streets,
where he had been confined in chains by his
man killed three of the inmates OF the insti-
tuition during the twenty-five years lie was
confined there. For twenty years his hands
were chained to his bodyJ
Attendant Schroeder further said: "The
unfortunate occupants of the cells We're be-
ing smothered to death by smoke, and per-
haps blistered and burned by flames. Their
cries were heartrending. Some of them
cursed and swore, others laughed hideously,
and others gave utterance to such awful
cries as would have appalled, the hard
est heart. The tiremen, myself and a
patient named Rafferty, craWled OF our
hands and knees to such Of the men as we
could reach, and dragged out fourteen.
Eight of them were alive, four were suf-
located to death, and two were 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. but could
hear their horrible cries above the roaring
OF the flames rs they cam to realize the
horrible fate in store for them.
All the inmates in the insane department
We're secured safely except those in the
third story Of the wing in Which the fire
originated.
The total number of inmates in the
Institution is placed at SIC. OF these
eighteen are known to have persisted. 1t is
said there are seventy-tive missing, but Of
these probably all have been picked up in
different parts of the city by policemen.