The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-18


a general alarm.
Doctors, nurses and volun-
teers defed the poisonous gas
and flames emanating from
the films and carried the pa
tients to a hall in the rear of
the building.
The rescuers concentrated on get
ting the patients from the cots,
wrapping them in the first material
that presented itself and rushing
them through the flames and gas.
Firemen meanwhile poured stream
after stream of water into the fam
ing building that cut great GRIM
son cash into the cold mist OF the
early morning.
After the fire was controlled and
the patients removed to safety, uni
versity authorities took stock Of the
material damage and estimated it
at $250,000.
Before the flames finally were sub
dued, a dozen feats of heroism were
written into university history.
The fact that no lives were lost
probably was due to the cool work
of the nurses, aided by the doctors
on duty, Charles Brennan, fire chief.
told the United Press. Directed by
katherine Fores, the nurses Went
about the rescue calmly, systematic
ally carrying the patients out of
danger. First they took those who
we're i'll seriously, then those not so
i'll and finally the convalescents.
Miss CoStenborder, the individual
heroine, was hurt slightly when,
after she had aroused every one
in the hospital, she leaped through
a window into sand pile. Her
ankle was wrenched.
Rescue Is Orderly
She stayed at her post, calling
nurses and doctors until the switch
board became so hot that she had
to leave. At the same time flames
from the X-ray room were licking
across the corridor at her face.
The calmness of the rescuers re-
assured the patients and stayed a
panic. The rescue was as orderly
as a school fire drill.
Damage was confined to the third
and fifth floors. The third, where
the X-ray room was being destroyed
by the flames. Little damage was
done on the lower floors by fire, but
The flooding Of the X-ray room with
water caused some property loss be-
low.
Sheets of flame were shooting
from the windows of the x-ray
room when f1remen arrived. Fear
ing a repetition Of the Cleveland
hospital disaster, which killed 127
persons this year, Fire Chief
Brennan immediately sounded call
for his helmet squad. and that
group, wearing gas masks, dared TO
enter the flaming X-ray room. The
room and adjoining rooms we're
flooded with water.
Doctors Are Trapped
The heat was terrific and this
handicapped the fire fighters and
rescuers. All elevators went out of
commission soon after the flames
started and that handicapped the
workers as some patients were on
the fifth floor and were carried to
the ground floor.
The nurses gave way TO woman
like tears and other manifestations
of excitement after the fire was cut.
There was no hysteria while pa
tients were to be saved, but there
was a let-down in emotions after it
was all over.
Three doctors, aiding nurses in the
rescue, were trapped on the blazing
third floor at the height Of the
fire The stairway was cut OF by
flames and the elevators we're out
of commission.
The physicians, Drs. Russob
Jackie, John Logan and John Rich
ard, with their arms over their eyes.
fought their way to a window. One
of them smashed it with his flrss,
and the trio crawled out on the
ledge, the flames following them
through the shattered glass.
There they hung. tongues of fame
shooting through the broken win
dow and licking at their fingers un-
til firemen raised a ladder and took
them of just when 1t appeared they
would have to let loose and drop
to a pavement below.
Their only injuries were scorched
fingers. .i.-.........lasss. =.