–~125 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 327.
— 125 NFPA. Deadliest Large-Loss Fires. Deadliest Hospital Fires in the United States. 1984.
— 125 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 125 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
— 125 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, p. 6
— 125 New York Times, “The Century’s Worst Fires.” March 26, 1990
— 125 Smith. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America… 1978, p. 134.
— 124 Lima News, OH. “Fire is Fourth Major Disaster.” 2-3-1946, p. 1.
— 123 Case Western RU. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. “The Cleveland Clinic Disaster.”
— 123 Ohio History Central, Cleveland Clinic Fire.
— 121 National Board of Fire Underwriters (NBFU). Report on the Cleveland Clinic Fire.

Narrative Information

Case Western Reserve University: “Cleveland Clinic officials were absolved of responsibility for the fire and the $3 million in lawsuits, filed as a result of the disaster, were settled out of court for about $45,000. The City Manager’s commission investigating the fire recommended that Cleveland’s police and fire departments be supplied with gas masks and that a municipal ambulance service be established to provide suitable transportation for emergency cases needing hospital care. On the national level, the clinic fire resulted in the development of new standards for storage and labeling of hazardous materials, especially nitro-cellulose film. Fire insurance companies also began to revise and strictly enforce safety regulations regarding the storage of such materials.” (CWRU. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. “The Cleveland Clinic Disaster.”)

National Board of Fire Underwriters: “A catastrophic fire at the Cleveland Clinic in 1929 impacted fire-fighting practices and hospital procedures in Ohio and across the United States.

“On May 15, 1929, the main building of the Cleveland Clinic caught fire. The fire began when an exposed light bulb was too close to some nitro-cellulose x-ray film, igniting the film. In the end, 123 people lost their lives. Eighty of the dead were either patients or visitors at the clinic, and the rest were employees. One of the Cleveland Clinic’s founders, Dr. John Phillips, was among the dead. Most of the victims died from inhaling poisonous gases produced by the burning x-ray film.

“Investigators found that the clinic was not to blame for the tragedy, but the Cleveland Clinic fire influenced major changes at both the local and national levels. The city of Cleveland decided that fire departments should receive gas masks as part of their equipment and advocated creating an ambulance service for the city. Nationally, medical facilities established new standards for storing hazardous materials such as x-ray film.” (Ohio Historical Society, Cleveland Clinic Fire)

“The clinic building…erected in 1920…in which the fire occurred, is a four-story fireproof structure….The Clinic building is used principally for diagnosis and examination of patients….There are no bed patients….

“The fire occurred in the busiest part of the day, between 11 a.m. and 12 noon, and it is estimated that about 250 patients and employees were in the building at the time. It is reasonable to assume that the only way the patients knew of leaving the building was the front stair well or the elevator and it was near these that so many lost their lives by gas. The rear stairwell and elevator were cut off by flames.

“…19 vertical pipe ducts or chases extended from a pipe tunnel on basement level, and several others from the machine room in the basement to the roof space. These pipe chases were apparently the principal means for the passage of gases throughout the building.” (NBFU, p. 3)

“In the basement were the pharmacy stock room, X-ray film room in which the fire originated, maintenance shop, and machine room. A large quantity of X-ray films was stored on the first floor in a room enclosed by tile partitions with opening to corridor protected by an approved class A fire door….

“A leak had been discovered in the high pressure steam line in the film room in the basement. A steam fitter was called in to make repairs, arriving at the building about 9 o’clock; he discovered the leak in the northeast corner of the film room… After removing about 14 inches of the magnesia insulation near the leak a jet of steam about 3 feet long issued from the pipe in the direction of the film rack against the north wall. The workman went to the power house to have the steam shut off and line drained and then returned to his shop to allow the line to cool. Two hours later, or shortly after 11 a.m., he came back to the film room where he discovered a cloud of yellowish smoke about 5 feet square in the northeast corner of the room near the ceiling. He immediately secured a 2 ½ gallon extinguisher from the machine room, which he emptied in the general direction of the smoke. The steam fitter was overcome by the fumes, fell to the floor, was revived by a draft of fresh air and started for the door of the room on his hands and knees. A slight explosion behind him threw him through the door into the machine room. He ran to the maintenance man who was working at a bench across the basement from the film room and together they made their way through a window and areaway out of the building. Another explosion occurred when the men were at the window. The building superintendent, who was in the basement when the steam fitter called for an extinguisher, ran out to spread the alarm.” (NBFU, p. 4)

“The companies located at Euclid avenue and East 105th street…were first to respond. The odor of burning nitrocellulose was noticed several blocks east of the building, and the building was almost obscured by a dense cloud of yellowish brown vapor. A second alarm was sent in at once….

“Chief Graham and a member of the rescue squad put on gas masks and tried to enter the building. They reached the front stair landing below the second floor but were forced out of the building by the concentration of the gases. An attempt was made to use an oxygen helmet, which failed because it was not properly adjusted on the man.

“A 50-foot ladder was raised to the roof, and two firemen were attempting to reach persons in a window when an explosion occurred tearing out both skylights and parts of the ceiling of the fourth story. No explosion had been heard since the arrival of the department, a matter of some eight to ten minutes. The blowing out of the skylights liberated a vast cloud of brown vapor, clearing the building of gas; people then could be seen at all windows, which was the first time anyone had realized that so many people were in the building. The rescue work began in earnest….By 1;15 p.m. everyone had been removed and the fire was out except for smoldering window frames and a little wood in the roof space near the rear stairs.” (NBFU, p. 8)

“Rescuers found the dead and dying piled in the stair landings and in the hallways at the front elevator. By far the greatest number of victims were on the third floor.

“Approximately 30 per cent of the gases [released by the X-ray film] were carbon monoxide which contributed to the destruction of life as well as property…. Nitrogen peroxide probably constituted about 30 per cent of the gases and would cause death because of its corrosive action on the human tissues. In very dilute mixture it will produce headache and illness, and some authorities say that breathing 1 per cent of this gas in air will result in death. When this gas comes in contact with water it dissolves to form nitric acid and nitrous acid together; this is an oxidizing agent and burns the human tissues.” (NBFU, pp. 9-10)

“Lack of air in the [film] room prevented free burning of the film, hence a great quantity of gas was formed. The yellowish brown vapors rapidly passed out of the film room into the machine room and through the pipe tunnel up the pipe ducts and through the entire building. The gases much have been heated past their ignition point, hence flashed on contact with air. As the fumes became mixed with air they burned intensely in the rear stairway and elevator and in the southeast corner of the basement….

“It has been announced that 121 persons lost their lives in this catastrophe, and about 50 others were treated in hospitals for the effect of the gas. Those affected by the gas included doctors, nurses, patients, employees, firemen, policemen, volunteer rescuers, and spectators. A few people were injured by falling glass when the skylight was blown open, and one person was killed in a fall to the ground. No one was burned to death or killed outright by the explosion. The larger number died from the effects of the gases, some living several hours or days after exposure….” (NBFU, p. 10)

“…the film vault was not properly vented and not equipped with automatic sprinklers.”

“This catastrophe thoroughly emphasizes the danger, especially to life, arising from the storage of nitrocellulose film in a manner not consistent with its hazardous qualities.

“A very important point to be appreciated in such fires is, as noted, the presence of nitrous fumes. Water will absorb a considerable portion of these fumes. The water spray from automatic sprinklers is, as a result, very effective in reducing the possibility of danger from this undesirable feature. While only a small percentage of the other gases are absorbed by water, the water spray cools them below the ignition point and also saturates them with moisture. They therefore will not take fire spontaneously when they issue from vault or room and are more difficult to ignite subsequently, due to their water vapor content….” (NBFU, p. 12)

Ohio History Central: “A catastrophic fire at the Cleveland Clinic in 1929 impacted fire-fighting practices and hospital procedures in Ohio and across the United States.

Sources

Case Western Reserve University. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. “Cleveland Clinic Disaster.” Accessed 7-2-2009 at: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CCD

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Lima News, OH. “Fire is Fourth Major Disaster.” 2-3-1946, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=18963237&sterm=fire+garfield+heights

National Board of Fire Underwriters and Ohio Inspection Bureau. Report on the Cleveland Clinic Fire, Cleveland, Ohio, May 15, 1929. New York, NY and Columbus, Ohio, June 4, 1929. 11 pages. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/Research/HospitalsCleveland.pdf

National Fire Protection Association. Deadliest Large-Loss Fires. “Deadliest Fires or Explosions in the World of all Time, Excluding Bombings and Wartime Attacks.” 5/7/2009 at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=954&itemID=40958&URL=Research/Fire%20statistics/Deadliest/large-loss%20fires

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf

New York Times. “The Century’s Worst Fires.” 3-26-1990. Accessed 9-28-2017 at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D9113CF935A15750C0A966958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FF%2FFires%20and%20Firefighters

Ohio History Central, Ohio History Connection. Cleveland Clinic Fire. Accessed 6-2-2020 at: https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cleveland_Clinic_Fire

Smith, Dennis. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America: 300 Years of Courage. NY: The Dial Press, 1978.

1929 — May 15, Cleveland Clinic (hospital) Fire/explosion/poison gas, Cleveland, OH– 125