FIRE IN AN INSANE ASYLUM

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 409, 11 February 1881, Page 5

FIRE IN AN INSANE ASYLUM,

A Terrible fire, attended with great loss of life, occurred in the State Insane Asylum, at St. Peter, Minn., on the night of Nov. 15. The Asylum took ten years to build, and cost 500,000 dol. The loss from the fire will be about half that sum, on which there is no insurance. When the danger became imminent the superintendent ordered the release of all the patients, and it is probable that some were overlooked in the confusion and burned, especially as some rooms quickly filled with smoke and could not be entered by the rescuers. There were 65G patients in the hospital last year, but the number had decreased somewhat when the fire occurred. The liberated oneb were cared for by citizens. Probably some of the insane took advantage of the opportunity to run away and others wandered off aimlessly.

The scenes at the burning of the poor inmates in the hospital were heartrending in the extreme. So appalling a sight has rarely been witnessed. The patients in the annex wing were males. Many of them refused to leave the building at all. They ran up and down the halls, screaming and crying. Of course, those who could not be coaxed or foi ced out of the buildings became the unhappy victims of the flames, and were suffocated or suffered a horrible death in the pit of the flames. The others were saved, some by ladders and some by leaping from the windows. Some were nearly nude, some shoeless and hatless, and all were exposed to the exceeding cold of the night. Many of the poor demented and crazed inmates fled as if for their lives, and could not be overtaken or confined. Their sufferings in this frightful condition can better be imagined than described. The whole catastrophe is a heartrending one. The poor dazed inmates of the asylum who had escaped the flames were at large half clothed, and were to be seen in all directions flying in wi'd flight from those who attempted to save them. The air was bitterly cold and the poor wretches with half-naked bodies and bleeding feet were rushing about, hiding in alleys and dark corners for some time.

Another special says :—": — " While the flames were slowly progressing the matron of the female department made all haste to get the inmates out, and many of them ran shrieking into the snowdrifts in their night clothes, even burying themselves in the snow, and had to be dragged into the barns and sheds, while those near by wrapped *olankets and shawls around them. Hence intense suffering could jiot be avoided, as they bad to be taken about fiftsen or twenty rods through the snow to the nearest shelter, which was on a hill immediately in the rear of the souih wing.

The following is told by an eye-witness of the fate of six male patients who were seen crowding around a window in an upper story during: the progress of the fire :—: —

" They were wonderfully apathetic, and were apparently more interested in the work of the fireman — as a child might be interested in such a seene — than in caring for their own safety. They did not appreciate nor understand the mortal danger in which they were placed, but jabbered at times among themselves with apparent delight at the spectacle, as if the affair were something especiallyordered for their entertainment. At times, as the flames came upon them, they would move aside, but only for a moment. Finally, when their retreat had been cut off, some of them seemed to realise in their dim intellects the extremity in which they were placed, and turned to escape, but, returning to address a tirade of gibberish to the firemen, the floor gave way beneath them and they fell back uttering a chorus of horrible imprecations and were roasted."