Fire at Colney Hatch.

Manawatu Herald, 31 January 1903, Page 2

Fire at Colney Hatch .

The fire in Colney Hatch Asylum started at 6.80 in the an annexe containing two hundred women, who vyer&.stiU in hed v & high wind .was blowing, . .lin'd;* the an nexe was qhickly a mass'of flames. The: pipe deeding to .W.&rteaian well was under knd the water supply was scarce.-Tilany fire brigades were in,attendance. The officials and attendants made heroic efforts to save the patients, hut experienced difficulty in getting those afflicted to understand their peril. Many resisted the attempts to rescue them. Numbers were overpowered in the corridors, and two nurses were among those who perished. The latest report gives the number of deaths as fifty. Three hundred and thirty pauper

cripples—d hundred of theitf ijaite -occupied ; the wooden annexe at Colney Hr.fch Asylum. The annexe Cward a and Waa connected; with the main building by. a corbel or, which the firem'e’h' dsndblishsd and confined- the conflagration to the annexe. The fire was first discovered by a nurse in a storeroom. The flame's' spread with great rapidity, despite the efforts made by the asylum firemen. They wore soon aided by thirty-five engines and 200 firemen from Looddni - The nursei attendants of the asylum made gallant efforts to rescue the J They * succeeded in-’ rescuing two hundred and eighty, Dif Seward, the medical superintendent, personally saving scores. ’» ‘

The worst jcCno occurred" in ward No. fi, where the pa'.Lmh suffering from suicidal h awed Thirty-five out of ib.-se unfortunate people-iperished, and sixteen in Ward Noi*4**.Some of the patients wore quite calm, dtherarwere-gleef-ul' and some in their frenzy fought their rescuers and hid .under-the beds. One-patient bit a.'mime's finger off. b : ' r; .Nohe pl' the nurses were killed, hut several weiolnjured;-’ ; ,■/ : ' FIFTY-TWO LIVES LOST: During the fire at' Colney Hatch Asylum, near London, soifie .pf the patients, evading their nurses, roamed about tho asylum grounds in their ontil. morning. , -j Theipbarved remains of the viotnfi's’j in No. 5 ward are unrecognisable, j I)r Seward, medical superintendent, staffed ’ j buildifig>fai uninjured, i Thh death-roll nuihhers fifty two. j The press insists that a . strict • inquire shall be hold into the cause j of thfe outbreak and the circumstances attending it. . : :