New Britain herald., 1923-12-27
SEVENTEEN KILLED
 IN MADHOUSE FIRE
35 Violent Lunatics at Large After Chicago Disaster
BLAZE WAS AN AWFUL ONE


 One Sheet of FIames-Tire Appa
 ratus, Stuck in Mud, is Delayed h
 Getting to Scene of Catastrophe.
 Chicago, Dec. 27.-Seventeen per sons were killed last night when a swiftly spreading fire of unknown origin destroyed an old wooden payil- ion known as the death house" al the state hospital for the insane at Cunning, at the northwestern edge oi Chicago. Fourteen of the dead are known to have been patients in vari- ous stages of insanity Three others were F.. J. Caraker and his wife, at- tendants, and Lowell their S-year-old son.
 Only One Identified
 Only one patient has been identi- fled. The bodies of the others were burned beyond recognition.
 About 35 of the patients, includ- ing several of a violent type. broke away in the excitement of herding more than 500 inmates from the danger zone. Several were taken back to the institution after hard struggles with the police.
 Dozen stuI At Large
 A dozen supposedly dangerous pa tients were reported still at large car ly today,
 It was the worst institutional fire in Illinois history. The building, witnesses said, seemed to go up in one great burst Of flame. It was given the name death house" when it was the property Of Cook county because Of its flimsy construction, it Is said. It was 500 feet long and four hun dred feet wide, one story high at one end and rose to two stories at tho other. It houses approximately GOO patients suffering with the milder forms of insanity.
 Patients Do Rescue Work
 number of the patients were epileptics usually In full control Of their faculties. and they aided in rescuing the helpless after one of their number had given the alarm.
 The institution houses approximate ly $500 patients and the shriek of the fire alarm siren threw them into g frenzy. Attendants haitlcd 10 drive them back from doors and windows and 10 quiet them. while tho tiames consumed the wooden structure. The cries of the charges led past the buildings housing thr moro dangerous patients excited them all tho moro. and for an hour the scene was truly one of Redlsm.
 Apparatus Gets stuck
 More than dozcn Chicago fro dc- rartmeni companies responded to q general alarm, but their apparatus was stalled in the mud of tn" institu- ton grounds, and it was with great difficulty that the fire was fought. Red ticking, blankets and clothing were laid in the mud to provide irac- ton for the fire trucks, and some lit- orally were brought up by mnn- power.
 II was thought at first that all per sons had been taken alive from the | burned building. and it was only when I arnmcn began exploring the shoulder ] ing ruins that the first body was l 
 found.
 Co Back For Presents
 Some of the patients broken from i the lines being herded to safety and | dashed back into the flames to obtain | Christmas presents and other possess sions. but it was thought all again had been brought out. Three patients locked themselves in closet and were saved, fighting, by policemen. There were 9 number of other heroic rescucs by the police, attendants, and inmates suffering with the milder de- gree Of insanity.
 seek to Place Blame
 Blame for the deaths in the fiimsy will be fixed by a joint inves- tigation of five official agencies work ing with Oscar Wolff, Cook county coroner. C. H. Jenkins, director of the state board of public welfare, will have charge of the combined agencies to Mir. Wolf, which will in- clude: The state fire marshal's office, the Chicago fire departments volun- fary investigation. the county board. County Judge Kareckl's investigation and that of the United States govern ment on behalf of the Veterans Bureau concerning it's patients at 
 institution Crowded
 The institution had been crowded be- rond is limits by an influx of patients . rom the county courts, Psycppathic 1 hospital. and from county institutions. 6 md the frame structures, including I hat burned. constructed years ago for q tuberculosis patients, had been pressed nto service. C The Dunning asylum had. includ- a ng that Of last night. eight fires since c March. 1910. but none of the others t sas Of any serious consequence. A check of the dead and missing s his morning. made little change in he figures. Identification Of a body oday as that of John Bennett brought C he identified dead to five q All Of the dead and missing are T .hicag0ans. according 10 the records ? f the institution, except Thomas Hall, mong the Unaccounted for. whose ti Jdress was given as Syracuse, N. Y. T Dr. D. D. Cohey. superintendent of c he hospital. suggested spontaneous q ombustion as the probable cause of T Be blaze Floor polish vas stored in T closet of the building in which the lt re started. he said.
 .sThe building was to have been recEed next year" Dr. Coffey said. I have been trying to wreck # ever [, .re | t,s.s.aue sHps rintendpnt. Two o