Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-02-13
FRIGHTFUL DISASTER.
TERRIBLE CONFEDERATION In
AN INSANE ASYLUM.
Death-Heartrendi Scenes
and Incidents.
ESPECIAL BY TELEGRAPH TO THE REcoRD-uslos.
DETAILS OLE THE HORROR.

DETAILS OF THE HORROR.
PHILADELPHIA, February 12th.-A Ere
broke out in the insane department of the
County house, West Philadelphia, to-
night. The flames spread rapidly, and be-
fore the 800 inmates could BE- released
nineteen of them were burned to death
The others were left to roam about the
grounds at will, and many of them were
picked up by the police throughout the
city. The buildings at II tonight were
still burning and the other departments
are in great danger.
PHILADELPHIA, February 18th. Eighteen
raving maniacs were burned to death in
the insane department of Blockley's aims
house, ON the west side of the Schuylkill
river, tonight, i'll a confiagration which
needed nothing to make it the most horri-
bic disaster of the kind ever known in the
history of the city. The fire originated in
the wing of the old building of the insane
department of Blockley, which fronts to-
wards the Schuylkill river, and directly
east of the main building of the almshouse.
This wing is 145 feet front and 60 deep. con-
nected on the south with the main building
of the old structure ofIhe insane department,
which runs south 400 feet to similar
wing to the one in which the disaster oc-
cured. In this north building, where the
fire broke out, there were sixty separate
cells for violent patients, twenty on each
In, aI1 70
large room on each of the three 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 the row of separate cells
On the north side of the corridor, which
runs from east to west, was the drying
room, heated by steam.
WHERE THE FIRE ORIGINATED.
This room, which was about ten feet
square, was directly alongside the middle
stairway leading to the floors above and
below Here the flames originated, but
from what cause is not known AT the
time there were insane patients in each OF
the twenty cells on these three floors-ten
in the large room on the first floor, and
twelve in each of the large rooms on the
second and third floors. From all accounts
to be obtained, 1t appears pretty certain that
the firstalarm was given by an insane patient
on the first floor of the building. This man,
Joseph Nadine occupied room adjoining
the stairway and drying-room, with about
twenty other quiet patients. 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-grated door fronting on
the main corridor Of the building, and
cried out Fire. This fearful sound
reached the ears of James Shredder, an at
tendant, on the ground floor, who was in
his room directly opposite the one from
which Nadine had given the alarm.
a woMAN's STORY.
Mrs. Umpstead, who has the general
charge at night, said it was about o'clock
when the alarm reached her She was in
her Office about 200 feet from the drying
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 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 and above the drying-room. She
then FASTENED to get all the patients from
the main building, extending back from
the east wing
STATEMENT OF AN ATTENDANT.
Attendant Shredder takes up the thread
'of the story al this point, and thus relates
some of the horrors of the dreadful night :
" do not know who sounded the alarm
As soon as heard Nadine cry out, | rushed
to the foot of the stairway, and after short
attempt to check the fire, at once set to
work to get out the patients. First | I'M
locked the door of the room in which Ma
dine and his companions were. and they
ran out at once. BY this time the flames
We're gathering in fury, and dense
volumes of smoke ascending into the upper
stories. ! succeeded in unlocking the doors
ofall 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
into the yard, for the flames were getting so
fierce II was almost impossible to breathe
in the now tiercely burning building. The
smoke i'll the upper stories was so thick
that breathing was impossible. While was
getting the men ont below, attendant VIM.
Shrain was doing the same for the inmates
on the second floor. ] met 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 buildings on
the west, and by that time some firemen
arrived. All the inmates had been gotten
out of the second story, and so there re
manned about twenty-eight on the third
tloor-twenty in cells and eight in the large
common room i'll the west end The un-
fortunate occupants OF the cells were being
smothered to death by the smoke and
perhaps blistered aud burned by
the flames. Their cries were heart
rending. Some of them cursed and
swore. Others laughed hideously, and
others yelled with pain, with such
awful cries as would have ap
palled the boldest heart. The firemen, my
self and Il patient named Rafferty, crawled
on our hands and knees to such OF the men
as we could reach, and dragged out four
teen, eight OF them alive, four suff0cated to
death, and two so horribly burned that
they died before we could get them out of
the building. We could not see any of the
men III the cells, but could hear their hor-
rible cries above the roaring flames as they
came to realize the horrible fate that was in
store for them"
THE MAIN BUILDING ATTACKED.
While Shredder was going through this
terribly experience the flames were extend
ing to the manipulating of the depart
ment. The wing in which the victims
were being burned alive was wrapped in
flames which wore SbOotjnu any faat into