Large Building Housing Men at Hospital for Insane Is on Fire, April 10, 1926

Hospital for Insane at Raleigh Burned . . Half of the Main Building Was in Flames, Which Were Spreading at 1:30 o’clock

Raleigh, April 10—Fire of undetermined origin raged through the State hospital for insane here shortly after noon today.

Failure of the water supply about 1 o’clock appeared to make the fighting hopeless and the firemen were forced to stand by with only one or two streams playing upon the building while the interior became a seething furnace. Hundreds of the occupants had been marched out early during the fire to safety while others had been brought out on stretchers. It was undetermined at 1:30 o’clock whether any of the patients had been caught in the flames.

More than one-half of the main building, an enormous structure, was in flames which were slowly spreading. The Durham fire department was called to the scene, and the adjutant general was appealed to call out the national guard to handle the situation. Efforts were being made to get hose connected to a nearby reservoir.

Shortly before 2 o’clock, firemen connected their hose with the reservoir of the asylum and began to play several streams on the blaze.

One patient was reported to have perished in the flames, guards at the institution reporting that they had seen him on the upper floor. His name was not known.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, April 10, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-04-10/ed-1/seq-1/