1951 — Jan 30, McClary Convalescent Home (for aged) incinerator fire, Hoquiam, WA– 21

— 21 Babcock. “Let’s Prevent Nursing Home Fire Casualties.” NFPA Quarterly, Oct 1954, p.100.
— 21 NFPA. Deadliest Fires in Facilities for Older Adults Since 1950. 2003
— 21 NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires in Nursing Homes & Homes for the Aged, 1921-1978.”
— 21 Morning Avalanche, Lubbock, TX. “Death Toll Soars to 21 in Rest Home Blaze.” 2-1-51
–>15 Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Late Flash.” 1-30-1951, p. 1.

Narrative Information

Babcock (NFPA): “Housekeeping. For lack of a better term ‘poor house-keeping’ is used to describe a multitude of housekeeping sins that cause fires. Since most of these sins involve accumulations of rubbish and worthless materials of one sort or another, it follows that fires from this cause do not occur in clean and neat establishments.

“It was not rubbish accumulation, but a for of poor housekeeping nonetheless that caused a fatal fire in Hoquiam, Washington in 1951. Twenty-one aged men and women lost their lives. The fire was due to the careless practice of hanging sheets and blankets to dry above an incinerator in the first floor laundry room. Nothing happened until the next day when a maid emptied a wastebasket into the incinerator. Sparks ignited the sheets, and flames spread with sickening speed through an open laundry chute and up the only interior stairway, both of which terminated in the second story hallway. An outside stairway, the only other way out, was cut off because it was exposed by flames belching from a window in the laundry.” (Babcock, Chester I. “Let’s Prevent Nursing Home Fire Casualties.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Oct 1954, p. 100.)

Newspapers:

Jan 30, Associated Press: “Hoquiam (AP) – A sudden fire flared through a rest home here today, killing at least 15 elderly persons. Fourteen bodies were counted at one mortuary and one person died at a hospital. The state patrol at Olympia said it had a report estimating the death list at 25, but his was not confirmable here.” (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Late Flash.” 1-30-1951, p. 1.)

Jan 31, International News Service: “Hoquiam, Wash., Jan. 31. (INS) The death toll of a flash fire in the McClary rest home at Hoquiam rose to 21 today with the death of another man. The latest to die was Nils Engerbretsen, who was carried out of the flaming building only to succumb in a hospital. Fourteen of the victims lost their lives in the building, one died of a heart attack at a neighboring house, and six died after being taken to hospitals. Fire Chief W. G. Haney of Hoquiam blamed a backfire in an incinerator in the laundry room for the fire. The flames roared up a laundry chute to the upper floors.” (Morning Avalanche, Lubbock, TX. “Death Toll Soars to 21 in Rest Home Blaze.” 2-1-1951, p. 8.)

Sources

Babcock, Chester I. “Let’s Prevent Nursing Home Fire Casualties.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Oct 1954, p.100.

Morning Avalanche, Lubbock, TX. “Death Toll Soars to 21 in Rest Home Blaze.” 2-1-1951, p. 8.
Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=107746273&sterm

National Fire Protection Association. Deadliest Fires in Facilities for Older Adults Since 1950. Accessed 1-22-2009 at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=795&itemID=20732&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fact%20sheets/Nursing%20homes/Deadliest%20fires%20in%20facilities%20for%20older%20adults

National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires in Nursing Homes & Homes for the Aged, 1921-1978 (list).” In: United States United States Congress, House of Representatives. Boarding Home Fires: The Tip of the Iceberg (Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Long Term Care, Select Committee on Aging, 96th Congress, First Session, April 25, 1979). Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979, pp. 312-314.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Late Flash.” 1-30-1951, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=19304740&sterm