Raleigh, April 12—The miraculous escape of the 400 male inmates of the State hospital for the insane while the wing in which they were housed burned down about their heads Saturday afternoon vied with the problems of what will be done with the patients thus burned out of the only home they are mentally fit to occupy as the principal topics for discussion in Raleigh officials circles yesterday.
The flames balked in their effort to consume the entire structure by fire walls and super-human efforts on the part of the fire fighters, had burned sullenly all night long on the ruins of the gutted west wing, until finally quenched by the flood of water from several leads of hose and the rain of early yesterday morning.
The ruins still smoldered last night, but there was no live fire. Walls of brick and stone stood blackened, and bars, tottering upon their weakened foundations. The more dangerous of the towering masonry piles were being pulled down by a tractor, hitched to long ropes, and blasted down with dynamite yesterday evening, under directions of the chief fire marshal, to prevent injuries to chance passers-by when they fell, as seemed imminent at every slight breeze. Interior walls practically all had fallen and lay in huge heaps of smoking masonry inside.
Governor A.W. McLean conferred with Dr. A.A. Anderson, superintendent of the institution, immediately upon the governor’s return from Washington yesterday morning. The governor extended his heart-felt congratulations and praise to Dr. Anderson upon the noble work done by his organization in emptying the doomed wing of its helpless human contents without a single casualty and assured him that money would be forthcoming for immediate rebuilding to relieve the emergency now existing.
Under an act passed by a recent legislature, the council of state is empowered to borrow up to $500,000 for permanent improvements in such emergencies, anticipating the action that the next legislature undoubtedly would take.
The architect who has drawn the plans for recent additions to the hospital for the insane was expected at the institution this morning and will start at once on plans for the replacement structure. Just what changes will be made in the architecture, Dr. Anderson has not determined, but one thing is certain—the new building, or wing, will be of fireproof construction.
The danger of fire in the old building, which was erected in 1865, was well known and several appeals have been made to the legislature for an appropriation with which to install a sprinkler system. At the last session, Stacy Wade, commission of Insurance, stated that he had made arrangements for spreading the $150,000 cost of such a system over a period of five years, by far the best proposition made up to that time, but the plan was refused.
Dr. Anderson declared yesterday that he knew of no insane hospital fire of like magnitude in the history of institutional conflagrations in which there were no serious casualties. He praised without stint the work of Dr. R.K. Adams, his assistant, who was in charge during his absence, and of the attendants who jeopardized their lives to heard the last of the inmates to safety. It was heroism and faultless judgment in the fullest sense of the words, he asserted.
Like horses caught in a burning barn, a number of the mentally unbalanced patients, further crazed by the danger, resisted efforts to force them into the open and safety They hid under the beds; they wrapped themselves in bedclothing and crawled into the innermost recess of closets in their efforts to remain in the only home they knew. One man barricaded himself in a room, directly in the path of the sweeping flames, and refused to listen to attendants who attempted to cajole him into coming out. With the aid of a fireman, armed with an axe, Dr. C.E. Houston finally effected an entrance and carried the would-be human sacrifice to safety, kicking, squirming and screaming. This was one of the men later reported as burned.
Many rumors were afloat Saturday evening to the general effect that one or more of the inmates had slipped back into the burning building and perished in the flames. The victims were named in several cases but, invariably, a check showed the inmates thus verbally consigned to a fire death to be safe.
Dr. Andrson stated yesterday evening that a complete check-up showed every man listed on the records as an inmate to be present or accounted for. As a matter of course, a lookout will be kept for human bones when the ruins cool enough for workmen to start removing debris, but no gruesome finds are expected.
When the word spread that the insane hospital was on fire, Raleigh townspeople had terrifying visions of liberated maniacs running amuck through the streets, endangering the lives of all who crossed their paths. Nothing could have been further from the actual occurrence. All the dangerous or criminally insane were kept in heavily barred quarters on the second floor of a new, fireproof building to the rear of the wing which burned. As soon as it became decidedly uncomfortable, these inmates were loaded into huge moving vans and moved, under ample guards, to the State’s prison. Not a one escaped.
Some of the patients not afflicted with dangerous delusions were, in normal times, given the run of the grounds. It was inevitable that some of them would escape in the excitement, and few did. Three of what are known as “happy chases,” for instance, did heroic work in caring for the disabled inmates, put them to bed and comforted them into quietness, then took French leave. They were found later in the evening and were back under the watchful eyes of their guards last night. One of them, for a time, was reported as a casualty, but denied it indignantly when he was discovered, several hours later, in the store of a friend far downtown. All but a very few showed no inclination to take advantage of the situation and leave.
The insane patients, routed out of their secluded quarters, attracted almost as much attention from the huge crowd of spectators that gathered Saturday afternoon as did the fire itself. The men first were placed in a blockade several hundred feet to the rear of the burning building. There, they comported themselves, for the most part, as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. Scantily clothed, as there had been no time to get them into outdoor garments before they were hurried from their indoor rooms, and with the stamp of idiocy upon their features, they made a pitiable exhibit. A few of the inmates, who retained their sense of propriety, did their best to prevent their fellows from performing acts which might shock the spectators, many of whom were women.
Twenty incapacitated inmates were housed in the male wing when the fire broke out. They were carried to the open on mattresses, then taken to Rex Hospital in ambulances.
The fire is believed to have started from a blow torch used by tinners in making repairs in the attic of the burned section. So complete is the destruction that it is doubtful if the truth of this deduction will ever be ascertained.
The entire building was valued at about $950,000. Exactly what the loss in the single wing will be has not been figured, but estimates run from $350,000 to $600,000. The building as a whole was insured for $445,000, which means that approximately half the loss will be recoverable.
From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, April 12, 1926
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