The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-13
Eighteen Of the Raving and Helpless Inmates
Burned to Death in Spite of All Efforts
to Rescue Them.
One of the Attendants Details Some H0r-
rible Scenes During the Fire.
The officials Succeed in Releasing All of the
Three Hundred Inmates but Eighteen
List of Those Supposed To Be Lost.
A HORRIBLE DISASTER.
Eighteen Imprisoned Lunatics Burned to
Death in an AImshOuse.


Death in an AImshouse.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 12.--Eighteen raving
maniacs were burned to death in the insane de-
partment of the Blockley almshouse in West
Philadelphia, tonight, in conhagration which
needed moth ing to make it the most horrible dis
aster Of the kind ever known in the history of
city. The fire originated in a wing Of the old
building Of the insane department., which fronts
toward the Schuylkill river, and directly east of
| the main building of the almshouse. This wing
is 145 feet front and 60 feet deep it is connected
on the south with the main building of the old
structures, the insane department of which runs
south 400 feet to a similar wing to the one in
which the disaster occurred In this north
building, where the FIRE broke out, there were
sixty separate cells for violent patients,
twenty on each floor. In addition
to this there was large room on each of the
third floors, in which cots for twelve men were
placed, all of which were occupied when the fire
broke out On the second floor opposite the
central cell Of row Of separate cells on the
north side corridor which runs from east
to west, was dry-room heated by steam.
This room, which was about ten feet
square, was directly alongside the middle stair
way leading to the floors above and below and
here the flames originated, but from what cause
is not now known. At the time there were insane
patients in each of the twenty cells on each of
the three floors, and twelve in each of the large
rooms on the second and third floors.
From all 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 occupied room adjoining
the stairway and dry-room with about
twenty other quiet patients. About 7:5O
o'clock he saw smoke issuing from above
the door which opened into the wing in which
| the cells are situated He ran to the big iron
grated door, fronting on the corridor of the
main building and shouted Fire" This sound
reached the ears of Joseph Shroder, an attend
| ant on the ground floor. who was in his room,
directly opposite the one from which the alarm
was given.
Mrs Umpstead who has general charge at
night said it was about o'clock when the
alarm reached her. She was in her Office, about
to the scene. She says that an attempt was
made to put out the flames with bukets of water,
and at first it was supposed the fire was 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 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 relates
| some Of the horrors of the dreadful night.
II do not know who sounded the
alarm. AS soon as heard the inmate cry,
rushed to the foot Of the stairway, and, after
short attempt to check the fire, at once
| set to work to get the patients out. First,
I unlocked the door of the room in which
the patients were confined when the alarm was
| given. They ran out at once. BY this time the
flames were increasing in fury, and dense vol
umes of smoke were ascending into the upper
| stories. I succeeded in unlocking the doors Of
all the cells on the first floor and although with
difficulty in some cases, succeeded in getting the
inmates out. / had no time to look after
them further than to run them to
the yard, before the flames were getting 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
impossible. While I was getting men
Strain, was doing the same for
inmates on the second floor / met Hannah,
the night watchman, who was also helping, and
went up to the third story, but we were driven
back by the hames 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 buildings on the west, and bv that
time some fremen had arrived All the in
mates had been got out of the second story, so
| 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 unfortunate occupants of the cells were
being smothered to death by smoke,
and perhaps blistered and burned by
| the flames. Their cries were heartrendine
Some of them cursed and swore others laughed
hideously, and others yelled with pain, with such
| awful cries as would have appalled, the hardest
heart Of the fremen Myself and 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 dead and two so hor-
| ribly burned that they died before we could get
them ont of the building. We could not see
any Of the men in the cells, but could
hear their cries above the roaring of
| the flames as they came to realize the horrible
fate that was in store for them"
While Schroeder was going through this terri
BILE experience, the flames were ex-