1930 — April 21, Ohio State Penitentiary Fire, Columbus, OH –320-322

–320-322 Blanchard.*

— 335 Marsh, Carole. Ohio: (Most Devastating!) Disasters. “335 Convicts Die…Fire,” p. 37.
— 322 Bromann, Mark. Fire Protection for Commercial Facilities. 2010, p. 177.
— 322 Columbus Navigator. “Forgotten History: The Great Columbus Prison Fire of 1930.”
— 322 Find A Grave. “William W. Young.” Died “1930 Ohio Penitentiary fire that killed 322.”
— 322 Hunter. A Historical Guidebook to Old Columbus. 2010, p. 133.
— 322 Ohio Historical Society. Ohio History Central. Ohio Penitentiary Fire.
— 321 Find A Grave. “1930 Ohio Penitentiary Fire – 321 Victims. 321 memorials.”**
— 320 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 327-328.
— 320 Federal Writers’ Project. The Ohio Guide. 1940, p. 35.
— 320 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, April 21, 1930, Prisoners Left to Burn…”
— 320 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 320 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
— 320 NFPA. U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. December 2008, p. 24.
— 320 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999. p. 6.
— 320 Ohio Inspection Bureau. Report on the Ohio State Penitentiary Fire, Columbus, Ohio.
— 320 Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Prisons. 2003, p.182.
— 320 Wilson. “Institutional Fire Protection is Different.” NFPA Quarterly, July 1961, p. 33.
— 319 New York Times. “The Century’s Worst Fires.” March 26, 1990.
— 319 Robinson, Kathleen. “Trapped.” NFPA Journal, Sep/Oct 2011, p. 96.
— 318 Wilson. Forced Labor in the United States. 1933, p. 52.
— 317 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database.
— 317 Woodworth, Monica R. Ohio Penitentiary Fire of Monday, April 21, 1930. 2003.

*We cannot definitively “nail down” the exact number of deaths ourselves. While FindaGrave.com indicates there are 321 deaths at one place and 322 at another we counted 319 entries in the listing of death memorials. Most sources note either 320 or 322 deaths. We draw attention to fact that one of the deaths was of an inmate who died approximately two weeks later of double pneumonia which was attributed in the press and in FindAGrave.com to the fire. It is possible that this later death was not included in the sources which note 320 deaths (which all occurred on April 21). Thus we choose to show a range of 320-322 deaths.

**The names, birth and death dates, and place of burial of 321 victims are provided. One, William W. Young, died on May 7 “of double pneumonia brought on by April 21, 1930 Ohio Penitentiary fire…” If we counted the names correctly we see 319 listings. On the page of at least one of the entries it is stated that there were 322 deaths.

Narrative Information

Country Beautiful: “Smoke ominously curled from the construction area and a fire alarm was turned in at 6:00.” (Country Beautiful. Great Fires of America. 1973, 142.)

History.com: “The Ohio State Penitentiary was built in Columbus in 1834….The prison, built to hold 1,500 people, was almost always overcrowded and notorious for its poor conditions. At the time of the 1930 fire, there were 4,300 prisoners living in the jail. Construction crews were working on an expansion and scaffolding was set up along one side of the building. On the night of April 21, a fire broke out on the scaffolding.” (History.com. “Prisoners Left to Burn in Ohio Fire.”)

Ohio Historical Society: “On April 21, 1930, the Ohio Penitentiary experienced the worst disaster in its history. A terrible fire broke out in the early evening, eventually killing 322 inmates [“some of whom burn to death when they are not unlocked from their cells.” (History.com)]. Not only was the state penitentiary fire the worst fire in Ohio’s history, it was also the worst fire in American prison history.” (Ohio Historical Society, Ohio History Central, “Ohio Penitentiary Fire.”)

History.com: “The cell block adjacent to the scaffolding housed 800 prisoners, most of whom were already locked in for the night. The inmates begged to be let out of their cells as smoke filled the cell block. However, most reports claim that the guards not only refused to unlock the cells, they continued to lock up other prisoners. Meanwhile, the fire spread to the roof, endangering the inmates on the prison’s upper level as well.

“Finally, two prisoners forcibly took the keys from a guard and began their own rescue efforts. Approximately 50 inmates made it out of their cells before the heavy smoke stopped the impromptu evacuation.” (History.com. “Prisoners Left to Burn in Ohio Fire.”)

Country Beautiful: “The upper tiers were now a mass of flames but many men were set loose from the lower tiers. In four or five minutes the screaming in the upper tiers no longer existed — the fire had already claimed its victims. Due to the lack of efficiency in locating the keys and unlocking the cells, the men died after flames reached the roof. By the time the cells were ordered unlocked, the upper two tiers were engulfed in flames.” (Country Beautiful. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 143.)

History.com: “The roof then caved in on the upper cells. About 160 prisoners burned to death.” (History.com.)

Country Beautiful: “The fire depart¬ment arrived within two minutes after the alarm was turned in but could do nothing in the confusion. Near-riot conditions existed as guards and, later, militia were overcautious in preventing escape and the prisoners were belligerent and vociferous at being allowed to barely escape in time.” (Country Beautiful. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 143.)

History.com: “Although some guards did work to save the lives of their charges, the seemingly willful indifference displayed by other guards led to a general riot. Firefighters initially could not get access to the fire because angry prisoners were pelting them with rocks. By the time the fire was controlled, 320 people were dead and another 130 were seriously injured.” (History.com.)

Ohio Historical Society: “There was little debate about the source of the fire. Apparently, a candle ignited some oily rags left on the roof of the West Block, also known as the Big Block, of the penitentiary. The fire became noticeable just after prisoners were locked into their cells for the evening. Although many inmates died from the flames, others perished after breathing poisonous smoke from some burning lumber.

“The reasons why someone started the fire and why it turned into such a tragedy have been more heavily disputed. Prison officials claimed that three prisoners, hoping to start a diversion so that they could escape, had started the fire intentionally. Two of the three accused inmates committed suicide in the months following the fire, seemingly substantiating that claim. Other observers believed that the fire had been a tragic accident. They felt that prison officials had accused the inmates as a means of diverting attention from the administration’s poor handling of the emergency.

“Regardless of the cause, conditions within the penitentiary had been ripe for a disaster for years. There had been concern about crowded conditions within the Ohio Penitentiary for more than twenty years. By 1930, the prison held an inmate population that was twice as large as its original capacity. Responding to this problem after the fire, prison administrators transferred several hundred inmates to a prison farm in London, Ohio. This move did not solve the greater problems that Ohio’s prison systems faced. (Ohio Historical Society. “Ohio Penitentiary Fire.”)

Country Beautiful: “The mad confusion that reigned in the prison after the fire began was largely due to the fact that no training, instructions or fire drills had been given as fire precautions.” (Country Beautiful. 1973, p. 143.)

Cornell: “…the controversy over the handling of the disaster lasted for months, with public groups calling for the ouster of Warden Preston Thomas. They had some good reasons. Every possible fire regulation had been ignored, no fire drills had been held, the guard staff had received no emergency training, and almost every official had demonstrated gross incompetency. Yet no action was taken against the prison authorities.” (Cornell. The Great International Disaster Book (3rd Ed.). 1982, p. 328.)

History.com: “The tragedy was roundly condemned in the press as preventable. It also led to the repeal of laws on minimum sentences that had in part caused the overcrowding of the prison. The Ohio Parole Board was established in 1931 and within the next year more than 2,300 prisoners from the Ohio Penitentiary had been released on parole.” (History.com. “Prisoners Left to Burn in Ohio Fire.”)

Ohio Historical Society: “In the aftermath of the fire, the state legislature created measures to address the overcrowding. The General Assembly established the Ohio Parole Board in 1931, leading to the eventual release of thousands of prisoners.” (Ohio Historical Society. “Ohio Penitentiary Fire.”)

Unintegrated Sources

Bromann: “Oil rags ignited a blaze on the roof of the overcrowded three-story Ohio State Penitentiary on April 21, 1930, resulting in a horrific fire that left 322 inmates dead from smoke inhalation. The undetected fire erupted minutes after iron gates had closed 4,500 men to confinement in their cells. Not a single guard or staff member had been trained in how to respond to a fire. The jail’s warden was initially certain that the fire had been designed as part of an escape plot. The fire advanced prodigiously, becoming so hot that a tower of catwalks warped and twisted into a snarl of metal. The 40-year-old structure contained six tiers of cellblocks, and those on tiers five and six were trapped by smoke and flame. Most inmates were eventually evacuated despite the ensuring chaotic nightmare.

“That prison fire in Columbus, Ohio remains the deadliest in U.S. history. On its heels, the National Fire Protection Association Life Safety Code (NFPA #101) and other model codes called for new jails to be constructed of limited or noncombustible materials, and to be provided with automatic fire sprinkler and detection systems.” (Bromann, Mark. Fire Protection for Commercial Facilities. 2010, p. 177.)

Marsh: “On April 21, 1930, a fire swept through four cell blocks of the Ohio State Penitentiary and took the lives of 335 men. Soldiers were called in to control 2,000 prisoners who were loose and threatened violence in the prison yards….

“The penitentiary was at that time one of the largest prisons in the country. It was also one of the most overcrowded. The building was designed to hold 1,500 but was housing 4,300 at the time of the fire.” (Marsh, Carole. Ohio: (Most Devastating!) Disasters. “335 Convicts Die in Ohio Prison Fire,” p. 37.)

Robinson: “`It seemed like a thousand men were yelling and beating on the bars. I could hear one voice that was very shrill, screaming, ‘For God’s sake, let me out. I’m burning – I’m burning!’ It was too much for me, and I ran away from the building. When I came back 15 minutes later, most of the cries had stopped.’

“The building he ran from was the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, and the speaker, quoted in the New York Times, was the operator of a filling station near the southwest corner of the prison. The day was April 21, 1930, when more than 300 inmates died in what is still the single deadliest prison fire in United States history.

“The fire, which officials believed was started by several convicts bent on escaping, started after the inmates returned from dinner round 5:30 p.m., and were locked in their cells for the night. The first alarm was sounded at 5:50 p.m., and within the space of about an hour, according to the Times, the fire ‘swept through four cell blocks and wiped out the lives of more than 300 men.’

“City firefighters who rushed to the prison were met with a scene of almost unimaginable horror, as hundreds of convicts trapped by the encroaching fire cried for help. Their only means of escape was through the locked cell doors – and, according to survivors quoted in the Times, a guard ‘told the convicts that he had no authority to release them from their cells, explaining that he had to wait for the command from his superiors.’ Eventually, the cell doors were unlocked, but for hundreds of prisoners it was too late.

“As the chaos grew, Warden Preston Thomas called for state and federal troops to help control the released men. The Associated Press reported that, outside the overcrowded prison, ‘National Guardsmen stood rigid, facing the prison walls. At the main gate, the regular army troops stood with bayonets affixed to their rifles.’ Columbus policemen patrolled the streets nearby.

“Outside the penitentiary walls, guards trained machine guns on the prison windows. When they heard men screaming in the burning cellblocks, however, ‘guards and convicts forgot their positions and joined hands in the common effort to save the men who were trapped,’ according to the Times.

“The final number of dead was placed at 319. Property damage was estimated at $11,000.” (Robinson, Kathleen. “Trapped.” NFPA Journal, Sep/Oct 2011, p. 96.)
Wilson (NFPA): “Prison fires provide interesting challenges to the fire protection engineer. The classic case occurred just before dark on an afternoon in April 1930 when smoke was seen pouring from the roof of the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. A fire in the wooden forms for a new cell block unde4r construction was spreading to the old wooden roof over the otherwise fire-resistive, cell block. In this overcrowded installation, each cell of the six tiers had to be unlocked individually. By the time the decision was made to free the men, the upper two tiers of the six were not approachable. Before the fire could be controlled, 320 prisoners had died and 133 others were seriously injured. Weaknesses in the built-in protection of the prison that were responsible for the 320 deaths included the combustible roof, lack of sprinklers, and the absence of cut-offs between the old ell block and the new.” (Wilson, Rexford. “Institutional Fire Protection is Different.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 55, No. 1, July 1961, p. 33.)

Sources

Bromann, Mark. Fire Protection for Commercial Facilities. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=lOi5Vu5VDJUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database. Louvain, Belgium: Universite Catholique do Louvain. Accessed at: http://www.emdat.be/

Columbus Navigator. “Forgotten History: The Great Columbus Prison Fire of 1930.” Accessed 6-2-2020 at: https://www.columbusnavigator.com/ohio-penitentiary-fire-1930/

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

Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. Waukesha, WI: Country Beautiful, 1973.

Federal Writers’ Project. The Ohio Guide. Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1940, p. 35. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=X_qnIqKfq-cC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Find A Grave. “1930 Ohio Penitentiary Fire – 321 Victims. 321 memorials.” Added by RickOhio3. Accessed 6-2-2020 at: https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/881827?page=1#sr-187101584

Find A Grave. “William W. Young.” File created by rickohio3, 3-19-2018 and accessed 6-2-2020 at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188155953/william-w_-young

History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, April 21, 1930. “Prisoners Left to Burn in Ohio Fire.” Accessed 12-07-2008 at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=04/21&categoryId=disaster

Hunter, Bob. A Historical Guidebook to Old Columbus: Finding the Past in the Present in Ohio’s Capital City. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. 2010. Google preview accessed 6-2-2020 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Historical_Guidebook_to_Old_Columbus/48yZPgmadjUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=A+Historical+Guidebook+to+Old+Columbus:+Finding+the+Past+in+the+Present+in+Ohio%27s+Capital+City,&printsec=frontcover

Marsh, Carole. Ohio: (Most Devastating!) Disasters. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ahRfdRhL6b4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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 Protection Association (John Hall, Jr.). U.S. Unintentional Fire Death Rates by State. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 31 pages, December 2008.

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

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Ohio Inspection Bureau. Report on the Ohio State Penitentiary Fire, Columbus, Ohio, April 21, 1930. Columbus, OH. At: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Research/Ohio_State_Penitentiary.pdf

Robinson, Kathleen. “Trapped.” NFPA Journal, Sep/Oct 2011, p. 96.

Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Prisons. NY: Facts On File, Inc. 2003. Partially digitized by Google: http://books.google.com/books?id=ObIQUpJxHZYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wilson, Rexford. “Institutional Fire Protection is Different.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 55, No. 1, July 1961, pp. 28-36.

Wilson, Walter. Forced Labor in the United States. New York: International Publishers, Co., Inc., 1933. Accessed at: http://www.archive.org/details/forcedlaborinuni00wilsrich

Woodworth, Monica R. Ohio Penitentiary Fire of Monday, April 21, 1930. 2003.