The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-07
AN INSANE ASYLUM FIRE.
SCORES OF THE 1900 PATIENTS
PERISH IN THE FLAMES.

h6rOlc WORK OF the Managers OF
the Institution and the Firemen.
Exciting Scenes With the Rescued.
MONTREAL. May 6.-The insane asylum
at Tongue Pointe, nine miles from here,
caught fire at IL o'clock this morning and
was totally destroyed. Nothing remains
standing but the blackened walls and
chimneys. 1t contained 1.3OO patients, or
| rather prisoners, and !, 100 are accounted
for. OF the remainder a considerable
| number escaped to the woods and bushes
and are scattered throughout the country.
THE DEAD.
What the number of the dead is is purely
a matter Of conjecture. and can never be
ascertained, since no other record was kept
than that in the asylum book, and it is de-
stroyed- Taking into consideration the
whole of the evidence from the firemen,
half sane inmates, the sisters in charge, the
bystanders and personal observation, it is a
conservative estimate to say that 100 vic
Tins met their death. though some assert
that the number Is double that stated, and
| others place it below this figure. However,
the fact remains that no such calamity has
ever before fallen upon the province of
Quebec.
EXCITING SCENES.
The fire apparatus at the asylum was in
| adequate to control the flames, and several
steamers were forwarded from here on a
| special train. The sights in the grounds
| surrounding the institution were horrible
beyond description. Hundreds of lunatics,
| male and female, were grouped to-
gether, jabbering and in frenzy. Num-
bers were making every effort to control
them and allay their fears As quickly as
possible the poor creatures were moved to
places of shelter. AT a few minutes past Q
| o'clock detail Of the Montreal fire brigade
| arrived on the scene. The excitement
| among the lunatics became so great that a
detachment of the Montreal police force was
| hurried out to assist the guards.
The firemen were Of little use because the
only supply of water available was in tanks,
| and this was exhausted in fifteen minutes.
ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.
The fire originated in a cupboard in the
women's quarters and was the work of a
patient. The construction of the house
| shows no precaution against fire,
its plan insuring its rapid destruc
from the river and there was nothing but
the tanks to depend on for water. Not a
male patient was lost. Among the women
| 1t was different.
THE EFFORTS TO SAVE THEM.
| lower wards and they were removed with
out difficulty, but from the upper wards
where the violent patients were secured
there came the widest screams as they re-
sisted the nuns who were beseeching
them to escape. At one of the windows o
maniac was seen peering through the bars
grtnning and jabbering at the bright flames
that went to the sky. As the heat became
more inteuse she grasped the bars, and re-
| ms ail1a1 fhara rnti aat ,-onob1d L.
UNPARALLELED SCENES.
People had come from all parts, attracted
by the blaze, and in an hour the little
| village was one surging mass of
shouting people recounting the strange
scenes they had beheld- When the firemen
found they were powerless TO save the
building they turned their attention to the
inmates, and burst in the doors with axes
Inside, Chief Benort says. it was sight
such as no fireman ever beheld.
HUDDLED TOGETHER LIKE ANIMALS.
In one ward that they entered were
| twenty-five patients, and at his approach
| they huddled together like pack of beasts,
winding their arms into one mass of human
| ity. He seized the nearest, "but," said the
chief, 81 could no more separate the crowd
| than l could parts of your horse.n He
tugged at them till the fire bursted into
their garments and enfolded them, and then
he escaped with his life.
FIREMEN IN A TRAP
In another ward three firenen were nearly
trapped to death. They entered, and the
door, which had spring lock, closed behind
them. As is customary, there was no
handle on the inside. The door resisted their
axes and they rushed to the windows, but
were driven back by the flames. The chief,
realizing their peril, senr aid to the other
side, and the men were carried down on the
ladders.
The engineers of the building did good
work in saving nine patients, and every
fireman made record of which he may
feel proud. On the first alarm the engineer
turned on the hose, but it was useless, as
the fire leaped along the shafting and
burned in dozen places at once.
NUNS PERISH.
Here melancholy event occurred One
of the nuns, Sister Marie, lay sick in the
infrmary, on the fifth floor, and to her
rescue came three others. They seized their
companion and bore her in blanket to the
staircase, but they were met by sheet of
fame and all persisted. None of them were
parishes below Quebec. The sisters worked
with the persistency of heroines, by turns
imploring, beseeching and commanding the
patients, and finally saving a very large
number. in view of the inadequate facilities
at hand.
THE SISTER SUPERIOR DYING,
Sister Theresa, the sister superior, is
broken hearted. and, being at present in ILL
health, her name may be added to the
already long list of victims. Drs Bouque
and Baralet were carried from the
building unconscious, and whatever
can be said of the management as whole
the individuals exercised every power to
lesson the calamity they neglected to avert.
A loud explosion was followed by crash of
beams. The interior was giving way and
the shrieks of the man1acs were lost in the
general uproar. One by one the walls
toppled inward and a fierce blaze burst
from the newly added fuel that rose against
the dark sky and shot its glare over the st.
Lawrence to the southern shore.
BLACKNEss AND ALL WAS OUT.
Then it died down into blackness, and
nothing but a few broken towers remained.
BY this time IL was o'clock and growing
dark and very cold, and spring rains had
converted the place into quagmire, and
only horseman could get from place to place.
The poor sisters, most of them young and
delicate, stood ankle deep in the mud.
experimenting the moving of the unfortu-
mates that had been saved. The patients
wandered about aimlessly, clad in scant
garments. When released many Of them
leaped for Joy and bounded like deer across
the fields to the woods. Patients of both
sexes escaped. and though a Gordon
police was thrown around not all were ~