The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-01-29
A MAD-HOUSE FIRE.
One Of the Detached Cottages ct tho
Kankakee Ml) Asylum Burns
to the Ground.
Seventeen of the Unfortunate
Patients Literally Roasted
to Death.
rKankakee un., special.l

Kankakee mn) special.I
A detached ward in the Eastern Illinois
Hospital for the Insane was discovered on
fire at o'clock this morning by night
Waterman Cabbro. The cold was intense,
the mercury marking IL degrees below.
The hour being late and no alarm being ct
hand the situation was appalling at the
start The Waterman stood almost par
alyzed with fright as the probable outcome
OF madmen fighting fire and cold together
flashed upon him.
The building Is two-story stone and
brick, with no wood about it except the
floor and stairways. 1t was COM
pleted last August at a cost of $25.-
600. 1t was used as an infrmary.
with forty five 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, attend
ants Reid, Williams, and Fireman Iabarger
on the first. The building was.heated by
hot-air furnaces. The watchman discov-
cred the smoke issuing from the floor i'm
mediately above the furnace. He aroused
the attendants The smoke was drawn
through the hot-air fiue and along the halls
and stairways to all parts of the building.
The fire spread SO rapidly that all efforts to
alarm to summon help and for want Of ia
cilities to guard the flames, were vain.
Attendant w. A. Reid began dragging
and carrying out the patients Many were
clad in their night clothes only. As soon
as they were taken from the building they
rushed back from the bitter cold into the
building Reid, at the risk of his own life,
struggled on antil twepty-one Of his
twenty three patients were rescued. when
he became exhausted and was carried to
bed.
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
aroused by the smoke. He attempted to
save patient In an adjoining room, but
failed. and, sliding down a sheet from his
window, jumped TO the ground.
Superintendent r. S. Dewey reached the
scene and with ladder climbed to the
second-story windows, smashed them in
and rescued some of the patients thereby.
Almost all the patients refused to co-ope-
rate in tho efforts made to save them. and
were only rescued by being dragged from
the flames and held from returning.
A marvellous escape was that of an in
mate who fell with the second floor and
struck the burning debris above the fur
mace and bounded through window 10 the
ground uninjured. The remains of the
bodies Of twelve patients have been taken
from the ruins burned to fragments. They
we're only identified by the location of their
bodies. The dead thus far identified, with
ages and residences, are: From Chicago,
Thomas Hereley, ~ years old, brother OF
State Senator Hereley; james Colbert, 80
years old; M. Jordon. 80 years old; Thomas
Hickey, 80 years old. from Springfield +.
Weymouth, 80, Peru; Henry Brown, 40.
Rock Island; S. w. Galloway. AZ. Say
brook; George Bennett, "a. Morris; j.
j. johnson, 80. Danvnle; Matthew Haigh,
Al, Chebanse; Theodore Hoehner, g. Free
port.
The following are missing inmates of the
burned building, all of whom, no doubt,
persisted: Alfred Runyard. aged so. Win
nebago; c. NJ. Tyler, As, Sheldon; G. Shotz,
IS, Chicago; John Nathan, AZ. Chicago;
Orlando Ellis, AZ, Pontiac.
At the Coroners inquest this morning
| Superintendent Dewey testified that he had
asked the Legislature two years ago for
| 50, 500 to protect these detached wards from
fire. that 81, 900 was allowed, all of which
was used in mains and hydrants; that the
amount was insufficient TO answer the pur-
pose suggested He had recommended
| TINT the floors above the hot-air furnace be
| changed. 1t was shown in the evidence
that they were but four inches from the
outside and ten inches from the inside Of
the furnace to the pine joists. The Super
| intendent gave two reasons for the great
number Of deaths-frst, that the patients
! were most all suffocated by smoke before
they could be reached and second, the ina
bility or unwillingness of insane patients
to try and help themselves.
Night Waterman Cobbs testified before
the Coroner's jury that he registered re-
port Of his calls every half hour. The reg
lister showed that he visited the furnace
room at $40 o'clock and found it all right
then. At 4:10 o'clock he discovered the
fire. He said that the floor Immediately
over the furnaces had frequently been no.
iced by attendants sleeping there to be I'M
comfortably hot; that the furnace was roof
ed by sheet-iron, then by two layers OF
brick laid in mortar. with n space Of but six
inches between them aud pine.
Attendant Il. G. Williams testified that
FIVE minutes after the fire was discovered it
was blazing through the floor; that on being
reused he ran outside and saw that the fire
was only visible about and around the fur
naSs.
Attendant J. G. Mcfarland, outside night
watchman testified that he heard tin cry
of "Firel" and reused the attendants Of
wards and 6, and carried two ladders
to the burning building from the carpenter
shop 100 yards away.
p. Skully. foreman for Architect J. r.
Willett, of Chicago. who has charge OF all
the hospital buildings, testified that he in
spected the furnaces when completed and
was satisfied with them then, but had not
inspected them since. The mir circulated
between the furnace roof and the Rine tim
Der. The hot-air conductors were brick
Hues. no wood being about them. The hot
air hues had four Inch walls and the smoke
fues eight inch walls.
The remains of the bodies with one ex-
ception did not aggregate each q sufficient
quantity Of charred fragments to I'LL mans