DEATH LIST MOUNTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 665, 17 May 1929, Page 1

DEATH LIST MOUNTS

Cleveland Clinic Horror 125 NOW DEAD, MORE DYING Man With Blow-Torch; Faulty Fire-Door (United I*.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright i (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Received 9.5 a.m. CLEVELAND (Ohio), Thursday. WITH the death list from the hospital disaster standing now at 125, and increasing hourly, various inquiries have been instigated by the city, county, State and Federal authorities. There are persistent reports that a man was seen using a blow-torch in the vicinity of the room where the X-ray films were stored, and this is being thoroughly investigated.

In the meantime, however, the only definite fact regarding the possible cause of such extensive fatalities was revealed by a city investigating commission, which discovered a faulty fire-door in the clinic's X-ray room, where the catastrophe originated. Dr. H. L. Rockwood, Health Commissioner and of the commission, declared that had the fire-door worked properly it would shut off the room from the remainder of the building, and would have caused the deadly poison gas to be forced to the street through the ventilator. The victims who fought for their lives through the night succumbed one after another to the effects of the gas. Six of the staff of physicians have died, including Dr. John Phillips, cofounder of the clinic, a native of Welland, Ontario, Canada. The morgues and the other hospitals at Cleveland were soon overflowing with dead and dying. The brave firemen at the clinic liad to use extension ladders outside the building because the interior was still so filled with smoke that it was impenetrable. Some of the injured and gassed victims died before oxygen could be administered to them. Dr. Crile and Dr. Lower, directors of the burned hospital, and every available doctor in the city, continued to work throughout the evening in efforts to revive the many patients who were still unconscious from the effects of gas. The heroism of the medical men was equalled by that of the police who first arrived on the scene. When the traffic control man on duty near the hospital heard the first explosion he rushed into the building and attempted to carry out a woman. He was overcome by gas and died. Police reserves, who were quickly summoned, found entry to the burning hospital impossible. They clambered on to the roof and opened a trap-door and let themselves down by ropes. Stricken patients were taken up by the same means and pulmotors were used to resuscitate them. The extreme suddenness of the disaster made a charnel house of the hospital, even before the rescuers could reach the scene. In the city square this evening a huge hoarding was surrounded by

thousands of relatives of the dead and injured; also by numerous strangers. From time to time men painted on the hoarding the names of the additional dead as they were telephoned from the various hospitals. A witness’s account of the disaster says that, after the first explosion had shattered the hospital, nurses and the few patients who happened to be close alongside the exits, poured screaming from the building. Of the girls who jumped from the third and second-storey windows some were so badly gassed that they staggered only a few feet before they collapsed. Pedestrians who ran up quickly were also caught by the gas wave. By that time many more men and women patients had appeared at upper windows screaming for help. They were in such a plight that most of them fell back into the flames and gas fumes. A few minutes later the firemen raised their ladders, mounted them and carried out the dead and injured. At 1 p.m. a dozen people were still standing on the roof to which they had escaped through a skylight. Superhuman efforts were made to reach them. Clouds of dense smoke occasionally blotted them out. Thousands of cheering spectators applauded every heroic effort made by the firemen.

WITH NEW ZEALANDERS CLINIC FOUNDER SERVED IN THE WAR UNDER DUNEDIN DOCTOR Press Association DUNEDIN, Today. Dr. George Crile, mentioned In the message about the Cleveland disaster, served for some time in France in the New Zealand Field Hospital, under Dr. Eugene O’Neill, of Dunedin. He is the discoverer of the modern, method of treating shock. Dr. Crile founded the Cleveland Clinic in 1921, and the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in 1921. Dr. Crile is a medical graduate of Wooster University, Cleveland, and he studied at London and Vienna. He held various professorships, and served with the American forces in France. He is the author ot various medical text books. Dr. Uower, also mentioned in the message, was at the Western Reserve University. He served with the British and the American forces in the war, and has published text books.