FIRE DESTROYS HOSPITAL.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 4593, 20 May 1922, Page 2

FIRE DESTROYS HOSPITAL.

DISASTER. IN ROME. (By Electric Cable—Copyright.) (Aust. and N .Z. Cable Association.) Rome, May 19. The Hospital of Santo Spirito was ono of the largest and most famous charities in the world. It has been in the course of erection since the time of Pope Innocent 111. The library and museum were most valuable. The fire was due to a short circuit starting a fire in the laundry, of which the ancient wooden floor and ceiling were quickly ablaze. There was a panic among the 890 patients when all the floor of the -oom occupied by the chronic patients fell in. Denso smoke filled the corridors. The doctors and nurses did rheir best, but were able to do little in the darkness. Almost all die v'etims were between 50 and 70 years cf age. The rest of the patients were carried into the courtyards and lay on improvised beds until the fire was extinguished.