UP TO 58 PERISH IN HOSPITAL FIRE: MANY BABY VICTIMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22915, 6 April 1949, Page 7

UP TO 58 PERISH IN HOSPITAL FIRE: MANY BABY VICTIMS

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (11 a.m.) NEW YORK, April 5. A fire which destroyed the Saint Anthony Hospital in Effingham, Illinois, tonight caused a heavy loss of life, estimated by police and hospital officials at from 56 to 58.

As records of the hospital were lost in the fire there may never be an accurate count.

Police records showed 55 escaped, and they estimated that at least 11 babies and the sister in the nursery and nine elderly persons who occupied the top floor are dead. Some sisters who were sleeping are also thought to have been burned to death.

The police reported there were more than 100 patients in the hospital when the fire broke out, and it is hard to say how many escaped from the four-storey building, which was reduced to a mass of ruins within an hour.

A number of patients who jumped from windows were badly injured. The fire is believed to have started in the coal shute, the flames rushing up the elevator shaft and quickly eny veloping the entire building. One of the first sections engulfed was the nursery. Reports conflict on the number of babies who were there.

Fire departments from six nearby communities and police from 14 counties rushed to the scene.

A number of patients are reported to have been carried out by nearby residents who rushed into the burning building. Catholic sisters who were in charge of the hospital set up a first-aid station in a nearby garage. Firemen were unable to search the ruins''because of the interise heat and falling debris. Frantic Search for Relatives

Some relatives of patients frantically searched for their kinsfolk.

One man who helped to catch a dozen persons who leaped from the windows, said: “It was horrible to hear the folks in there shrieking for help and not being able to get to them.” * The hospital was located in a residential district of the town which has a population of 8000. A hospital attendant thought 50 perished, including 20 children. All the occupants of the nursery and maternity wards perished except three women who leaped from the windows. A man searching for his young daughter in the ruins fainted from the smell of burning flesh. As all the walls and roof collapsed into the basement it will be a long time before it can be discovered how many bodies are underneath the ruins.

A witness at the fire said the firemen were hampered by the low water pressure and that there was 15 minutes’ delay in getting streams of water on the building. Baby Born After Mother’s Escape

Mrs. Arnold Aderman, aged 25. was in the midst of delivery pains when the fire broke out. She jumped from a second-floor winow and was taken to a nearby home, where she had her baby in less than two hours. Both mother and infant are reported to be doing fine.

The cause of the fire has not been determined. Firemen said that thick smoke greatly hampered their rescue efforts The hospital was supposed to be fireproof and had its own fire extinguishing system. Nurses who were in a separate block from the hospital said they were awakened by screams and ran to the scene. They got mattresses from the storeroom and spread them under the windows and begged the patients to jump. Babies’ Bodies Recovered The first bodies taken from the ruins were those of 11 infants. Firemen found them still in their metal cribs on the second floor. . . Many adult patients who died were unable to attempt to escape because they were incapacitated. Some were suffocated while they were helpless with fractured limbs held in suspension slings. The hospital’s Catholic chaplain, Father Sandon, was reported dead and two nuns were reported missing.