The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-12-15
4OCHILDREN
DIE IN BLAZE
At ORPHANAGE
Flames Break Out at Night,
Trapping Many Small
Girls in Bed.
BODIES OF 20 FOUND
Nun Gives Life in Rescue
Effort in Century-OId
Quebec Building.
RM Nnited PrcaA


QUEBEC, Dec. 15.-The most dis
aStrous fire in the recent history
of Quebec, which burned the CEN
tury-old orphanage and school of
the HoSpice of st. Charles here last
night, left between forty and fifty
children dead or listed as missing
today
Up to noon eighteen bodies had
been recovered from the ruins of
the building, and two-a nun and
a child-had died in the Hospital
Of the Infant Jesus, making a total
Of twenty dead.
Sisters of the Good shepherd, who
conducted the orphanage and school
and who made heroic efforts to res
cue all of the 371 girls under II
years of age who we're in the build
ing, this afternoon expressed the
fear that the death list might ex-
ceed forty At noon fifty still we're
unaccounted for.
Many of the nuns were injured
or suffered from smoke and required
lllCQACdl VI CdUIL1Cl1O OOOdy.
There were 371 children and ap-
proximately forty nuns in the build
ing when the fire started at mid
night.
The fire was discovered by one of
the nuns conducting the orphanage
and school, who noticed smoke in a
corridor. She gave the alarm.
Sisters ran from floor to floor,
rouSing the sleeping children.
Take Children From Beds
AS f1remen arrived they saw the
building enveloped in smoke ard
fire while screams of frightened,
hysterical children made the scene
hideous.
AS firemen set their hose lines,
other squads and groups of police
ran into the building.
MANY of the children were still
in their beds when we got in," po-
liceThan who had worked most of
the night in the rescue party, told
the United Press.
1--WE picked them up and ran out
with them and then we went back
for more.
1--WE had gone in and out I don't
know how many times, before the
fire became so fierce we could hardly
get through the corridors.
1.-THE work was still going on when
the roof and walls began to fall,
cutting us off from entry entirely
"I know we could have saved many
more, if we had only had time"
Building Is Mass of Ruins
It was near daylight before the
fire was entirely extinguished, leav-
ing the old building mass OF ruins,
with financial loss estimated at
100000.
Then firemen and police, pene-
trating into the wreckage, began to
find the bodies of the small victims.
Most of the bodies were found in
cellar rooms. Some had died from
burns and the extreme heat while
indications were that others died
while fighting for life and had been
overcome by smoke or asphyxiated
by escaping gases.
The body of the Nun which was
recovered, was found in the cellar
where she evidently had died while
trying to save about forty children
sleeping there.
AS the alarm of fire spread over
the romantic old city OF Quebec,
crowds began assembling around the
hospice. Excitement grew. Relatives
of children cared for at the orphan
age-and in some cases parents who
had placed their children in the
care of the Sisters of the Good
Shepherd for schooling-cried and
shouted Historically.
Hogpice Played Tragic Role
At daylight many had been moved
to the morgue, where lines passed by
the fifteen little bodies on marble
slabs, attempting Identification.
Survivors of the fire, numbering
several hundred who had been
driven out with only their night
clothing, were crowded into the st.
Roch Hotel, the mother house OF
the Good Shepherd. When the
numbers overflowed the building,
they were taken to private resi-
dences thrown open to them.
Many of those who escaped suf-
fered severely from smoke, and
some narrowly escaped suffocation.
The Hospice of st. Charles has
played a tragic part in the history
of Quebec. During it's first years
1t served as marine hospital, but
when the great cholera epidemic
Of 1847 swept the city, 300 people
suffering from cholera were isolated
in it. More than half of them died.
It continued for a number of
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