The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-18
Fire in Hospital in Indianapolis Causes One Death and
 Many Injuries
JARRETT LEAHY JUMPS
 FROM THE FOURTH STORY
Patients Suffering from Recent Opera tions Make Desperate Efforts to Escape from the Burn
 ing Building.

Indianapolis, April 17-While the city fire department reinforced by companies from the suburbs was being taxed to it's utmost capacity fighting the Occidental hotel fire this morning an alarm was turned in from St. Vincents hospital.
 When thc first fire company arrived one fife had been lost and several were seriously i, Jured in the panic that fol- lowed.
 The cead.
 Harriet Leahy jumped from the fourth floor and instantly killed.
 The injured: Miss Kate Beach, believed to te fatally injured by falling from third floor while trying to escape by means of a rope made of bed clothes.
 Sister Superior, seriously injured by shock following a surgical operation.
 Sister Nordica, seriously injured by shcck.
 William Schneider, a patient who at the time ol the fire was undergoing an oper- ation
 Henry Niohols, Connellsville. just oper- ated on fer appendicitis, ran down stairs.
 Many Are Bruised.
 Several other nurses and attendants were more or less bruised in the endeavor to escape from what they thought was instant death.
 For time it seemed that the flames, which started among pile of rugs under the east stairway, would find their way to the upper floors. resulting in fright fu1 holacust.
 At every window, on the third and fourth floors were crowded the panic stricken men and women, screaming for help to those on the street below who were for more than twenty minutes pre- vented from entering the building be- cause of the dense smoke.
 The panic that ragged on the third and fourth floor continued until long after the fire had been quenched. Patients wno had just undergone surgical operations rushed from their beds to the windows and attempted to throw themselves to the ground
 Harriett Leahy, an employe of the hos pital, leaped from a window on the fourth floor and when picked up was dead.
 Ropes of Bed Clothes.
 In the rear men and women were maf- ing ropes of bed clothes by which they escaped to the ground below, Catherine Beach, less fortunate than the rest lost her hold and fell from the third floor and is now in a critical condition as a re. suit of her injuries.
 As an unusual number of surgical op- erations were performed in the hospital on Saturday, many of the patients, car ried from their beds by the rescuers, were in critical condition and the physicia ns in charge fear that many fatalities may ensue.
 James Dawson. an emaciated patient worked heroically among the panic stricken men and women on the third floor. One after another he pulled away from the windows. Those who were pre- pairing to jump to the street below he piloted through the smoke 70 places of safety on the first floor. After saving twenty-seven nurses and patients from possible injury in this manner, he lost consciousness and was carried into the :rale ward, where medical attention was given him. For time it was thought that he could not undergo the terrible strain to which he had been subjected
 Owing to the fire proof construction the actual loss to the building will not ex- ceed $1000.