The Washburn leader., 1911-08-04
EIGHT DIE IN
ASYLUM BLAZE
Maniacs Perish in Fire at
Hamilton, 0nt.
MAIN BUILDING BURNED

MAIN BUILDING BURNED
Firemen and Attendants Work Heroic.
ally and Save Nearly All the Eight
Hundred Patients In the Structure.
Several Of the Victims Fought the
Rescuers and Refused to Be Taken
to Salty.
Hamilton, Ont, Aug AT least
eight and perhaps ten lives were lost
in fire which destroyed one of the
main buildings Of the insane asylum
on the side of the mountain southwest
Of the city. There were 800 patients
in the building when the fire was dis
covered.
It was only a we'll trained fire fight
ing corps and splendid GOODNESS and
bravery among the nurses and attend
ants under DR.. English that averted a
more frightful loss of life.
There are four buildings In the
group within the asylum grounds. The
main building where the fire occurred
is a four-story brick structure with
basement, zoo feet in length and
about seventy feet wide with wings
at either end. The women patients,
numbering about $50, occupied a part
of the west wing.
The remainder of the building was
taken up with mems wards and con-
tanned some of the most desperate
cases in the asylum. The women
were moved without serious difficulty
to houses in the adjoining buildings.
Fire In Violent Ward.
The situation among the men was
more serious. The fire broke out on
the fourth floor in what is known as
section D, where the violent insane
are kept. Most of the men, guarded
by attendants, moved down three
flights of stairs out of the fire zone in
orderly procession.
by the sitting smoke and the excite
ment of a midnight fire, fought of
their rescuers with desperate fury.
Three of them after being carried
down to the second floor broke away
and fled back to the blazing corridors.
The flames in the meantime had
spread down the hallway and were
eating their way through the floor to
the third story. The asylum brigade,
although fighting bravely, were handi-
capped by the maniacs and were los
ing control.
The city brigade, which had been
summoned, was then toiling up the al
most precipitous roadway leading to
the asylum grounds. 1t was nearly
2 o'clock before the first of their ap-
paratus was brought into play. The
firemen ran scaling ladders up to the
third and fourth floor windows, where
it is believed some of the unfor-
tunates had fed.
Difficult to Break Gratings.
They found it difficult work to break
down the iron gratings on the win
dows and the fire in the meantime
was growing fiercer every minute.
Crawling into the sitting smoke the
fremen CROPPED their way about until
they found maniac.
He was still able to offer resistance
and it was necessary to knock him
senseless, when he was dropped into
the nfenets below. The combined fire
forces had the situation we'll in hand
by $3.50 a. m. The two upper floors
and the roof of the east wing were
burned and the lower floors were
flooded with water. AS the firemen
worked their way into the burned sec.
tion bodies were found.
Three were in the hallway on the
top floor, and one helpless paralytic
was burned to death in his cell. Four
more corpses were found huddled to-
gether in a small room.
At dawn systematic checking up
of the inmates was begun and it was
found that between ten and twelve
men were missing. It was thought
probable that some of these had es-
capped and were still at large in the
surrounding fields.
May PIT WlL SON IN GRll 1