The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1918-02-15
75 BADIES KILLED
IN ASYLUM FIRE
Wounded Canadian Soldiers Risk
Lives to Save Children at
Montreal.
BLAZE IN GREY NUNS HOME
Number of ConvaIeecent Troopers In
jured by Falling Debris-Thirty-
Eight Bodies Recovered
From Ruins.

Montreal Feb. 15.-Seventy-fve
babies perished in a fire which partially
destroyed a wing of the Grey Nuns
Home on Guy street last night.
The home occupies whole block and
is in continual use for convalescent sol
diers. Although many Of them were
stretcher cases, the adults were re-
moved from the building without loss
of life, although several Of fthe wound
ed men were seriously injured by fall
ing debris before they could be reached
by the rescuers, who gave no heed to
their own safety in .leir efforts to
carry the MANNED men to safety. A
dozen or more had to be carried from
the second and third stories on beds.
Recover Thrty-Eight Bodies.
The fremen recovered the remains
of SO babies and it was believed scores
of others were left in the building. 1t
will be some days before the total
death roll can be aScertained.
Scores Of women, many of them re-
cent mothers, were rushed from the
building very scantiIy clad and immedi-
ately taken into adjoining homes or to
the hospitals.
There were about 1000 inmates in
the building, returned soldiers, nursing
sisters, nuns, crippled people, aged and
children.
The fire originated on the top floor
of the ST. Matthew street wing, near
the tower, supposedly from electric
wiring, and Immediately caught in
the curtains of nearby window,
from which it spread rapidly through
out the wooden interior OF the upmost
story.
All Of this floor was occupied by
babes in cots, some of them only
few days old-little unwanted tots left
By harrassed mothers on the doorstep
of the convent to be cared for by the
kindly nuns. These were the infants
lost, all the other children, who were
in another part of the building, being
saved.
Soldiers Prove Heroes.
In deeds of heroiSm, rivalry in self
sacrifice, deeds for which some of
them would have won decorations on
the field Of honor, the returned heroes
who were not confined to their beds
lent their efforts to the rescue work.
When the first firemen arrived the
soldiers were already at work, at
great risk to themselves, in handing
children down the fire escapes. Near
ly the whole upper floor was then
ablaze. The fremen rushed in and
seized children right and left, Sub
Chief Marin taking four in his arms
at time. A sudden gust of flame
and smoke which burst from the
tower made it impossible to reach
children still lying IN their cots in
that part of the building.
"The Children First"
On the floors Immediately below
were returned soldiers who were still
undergoing hospital treatment and
some awaiting discharge.
Next to the children the thoughts of
the rescuers turned to those manned
soldiers who have @een back in their
native country on,y a few days and
were helpless in their beds. When
the probability of death was again
facing them, and all the time creep
ing round them, their thoughts were
still of sacrifice. They asked if the
children had all been saved, telling
their helpers to get them out first.