Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1892 — CRIPPLES IN A FIRE. [ARTICLE]

CRIPPLES IN A FIRE.

CONFLAGRATION IN A SURGICAL INSTITUTE. Flitecn People Believed to Have Met LU*ath and a Score or More Injured in a Midnight Blaze at Indianapolis—List of the Victims.—Origin of the Fire. A Hoosler Horror. One of the most appalling fires in the history of Indianapolis occurred shortly after midnight the other night. The National Surgical Institute, one of the most famous institutions of its character in the United States, burned to the ground. The fire started in the office building, and above the offices were the wards for babes and mothers and known as the ABC departments. Smoke was discovered a few minutes before midnight issuing from the advertising-room of the building, which is immediately over the office. The origin is claimed to have been from the spontaneous combustion of some chemicals which had been placed in the room. Circulars and papers in the room soon were ablaze and in fifteen minutes the whole lower floor was enveloped in flames.

The attendants barely awakened all of the patients, and in the halls and supper-rooms pandemonium reigned. Shriek after shriek went up as the inmates realized their terrible situation. In a few moments thoroughly frightened faces appeared at each window of the large building, and lips could be seen beseeching succor from those below, yet their voices could not be heard. Prayer after prayer went up from the unfortunate creatures, already the victims of cruel circumstances, that they might not perish in flames after suffering the most terrible pains from their afflic-, tions. The police and firemen and attendants all worked diligently and in perfect accord, and many were the patients taken from the upper floors by means of ladders and carried to places of safety by them. No attempt was made to save anything but life. The patients, both male and female, themselves under ordinary circumstances unable to barely get about, assisted most nobly in the work of rescue. A view in the halls and on the stairways before the fire had communicated to the main building furnished a weird sight. Inmates wrapped in bedolothing crawled and helped themselves along from one floor and one landing to the other. Without waiting for ladders to be run up, the desperate inmates jumped from the windows or huddled together upon the fire escape, but the 3ames cut off this descent at the second story and here they threw themselves to the ground. At least thirty persons were injured, some terribly. Some of the worst hurt are: Mr. Gales, of Madison, Ind., fell from a ladder, with a child in her arms; internally injured. Kate Elstrang, Indianapolis, fatally turned. Mrs. Thomas, Indianapolis, fatally burned. Fannie Breeden, Memphis, Tenn., badly burned; recovery doubtful. Mary Steams, Warren, lowa, burned about feet.

Clara Morris, address unknown; back injured. Grant Van Hoesen, Althena, N. Y., band and’ ear burned. Clarence Mead, Athens, N. Y., leg hurt. William H. Albach, Dunkirk, N. Y., burned. Leora Knowles, Independence, Ind., oack hurt in jumping. W. W. Snyder, Troy, Ohio, internally injured falling from window. Will Mansfield, Otsego, N. Y., foot hurt In jumping. Mrs. John S. Stokes, Danville, 111., ankle sprained. Nellie Mason, Walworth County, Win., jumped from third story and is fatally hurt. Mrs. Lazarus, of Texas, jumped from third-story window and will die. Mrs. G. J. Simpson and child, seriously burned. R. Connor, fell through hole in floor; fatally hurt. May Ballinger, Indianapolis, terribly burned. The scenes about the burning building were heartrending in the extreme. Many of the children were attended by their mothers, who were boarding at the institute, and these were nearly frantio with fear when they were discovered. One lady refused to leave the ward till her child had been carried off, and a policeman had to drag her from the room. Her child had been taken out, and when she found it In an adjoining block the transition from grief to joy was so sudden that she seemed like one deranged. The building was owned by Drs. Allen and Wilson, and it and the furnishings are estimated by Dr. Wilson to have been worth $250,000. The furnishings, including valuable appliances for all kinds of cripples, are a total loss, but the front building was partially saved. The loss will aggregate $200,000, with insurance of $150,000. It is feared that possibly as many as fifteen were suffocated by the smoke and perished in the flames.