DIED IN THE FLAMES-

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 483, 25 June 1890, Page 5

DIED IN THE FLAMES-

TEN HELPLESS LUNATICS BURNED.

DESTRUCTION OF ANOTHER ASYLUM.

Utica (N.Y.), May 8. —The larger portion of the Chenango county buildings, located at Preston, near Norwich, was burned at midnight last night and ten inmates, possibly more, lost their lives. The buildings destroyed were the insane asylum, in which were about eighty inmates, and the pauper house and idiot ward, in which were forty inmates. Both were three-storey wooden buildings in good repair, having wings two storeys in height. They were valued at $25,000, insured for $19,000, and are a total loss. A pitiable part of the disaster was the burning of ten idiots, who were penned in their cells and roasted alive.

The origin of the fire was probably smouldering sparks left from the slight fire which occurred YVednesday afternoon, when Deborah Dibble, a feeble-minded old woman, was smoking a pipe and set her clothing and bedding on fire and was burned fatally before the flames could be extinguished. The keeper was awakened by a pauper, and he attempted to release the idiots, but was driven back by the fire. He then ran through the outer buildings in his night clothes, rescuing the inmates.

Some of the lunatics had to be forced out, and fought against their release, but all were saved. Most of them were taken to the Methodist and Universalist Churches till other quarters were procured. Some escaped and took to the woods, where the Sheriff and deputies were hunting for them to-day. Keeper Mainwaring rescued several at the peril of his life. The scene at the burning was indescribable, and the horrors of Longue Pointe were re-enacted on a smaller scale. The demented and terrorstricken inmates wandered around the burning piles in a hopeless manner. The great wooden building lit up the hills for miles around. The bucket brigade formed and about 100 men laboured to save the small buildings in the rear, with success.

The stench was sickening. The idiots were locked in and roasted like beasts. Keeper Mainwaring said: “On opening the door leading from the hall to the idiot department I was thunderstruck to see the interior a mass of flames. I attempted to rescue the poor inmates, who were all securely shut in their cells as usual, but was driven back by heat I saw the idiots were doomed and nothing could save them. “ I then aroused the paupers. In some instances the poor people were dazed, and it was necessary to carry them bodily from the house and turn them loose in the yard and fields. There were twelve inmates in the idiot asylum, and they must have been overcome by the heat, for I heard nothing from them, and they were roasted like pigs.” Coroner Fernald, of Norwich, went to Preston and ordered the removal of the charred and blackened remains in the ruins. Buckets of water were dashed upon them, and at length the roasted trunks were pulled out and laid upon the grass. All were burned beyohd recognition. In some instances the remains were removed with shovels, nothing but the skull or a few bones giving any indications that they were once human beings.