1969 — Jan 18, Carrie Weaver Nursing Home fire, Greenville, MS — 7

–7 AP. “Seven Perish in Fire.” The Daily Herald, Biloxi, MS. 1-18-1969, p. 1.
–7 Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “Fire claims 7 elderly lives at Weaver’s ‘nursing home.’ 1-19-1969, 1.
–7 NFPA. “Summary of Fire Deaths in Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Homes for the Aged.”

Narrative Information

Jan 18: “Greenville, Miss. (AP) – The Greenville police department said today that seven persons died in an early morning blaze that swept through an all-negro nursing home here. A spokesman for the department said that three persons were dead on arrival at a Greenville hospital while four died in the fire at Carrie Weaver Nursing Home. Hospital officials confirmed that three persons were dead on arrival and added that an elderly negro man was in critical condition after flames raked the home.

“The nursing home serves elderly destitute negroes in the Greenville area.” (AP (Associated Press). “Seven Perish in Fire.” The Daily Herald, Biloxi, MS. 1-18-1969, p. 1.)

June 19: “Seven of 12 elderly residents of Carrie Weaver’s Nursing Home died Saturday in what was reportedly the ‘worst fire disaster in Greenville in at least 43 years.’ An eighth resident was hospitalized for smoke inhalation but was not seriously injured, a spokesman at General Hospital said.

“Four residents and the owners, Carrie and Wash Weaver, their two sons, a niece and a neighbor child escaped the flaming house uninjured.

“The cause of the fire was not known Saturday, according to Assistant Fire Chief Johnny Henson. He said the fire began in a bathroom off the front northeast room of the house. It gutted two rooms and did extensive smoke damage to the rest of the house.

“A coroner’s inquest, called by Washington County Coroner Tommy Stallings, ruled that four of the residents – Annie House, 61; Ella Cook, 85; Amanda Davis, 78; and Elnora English, 76 – died from burns. John Payne, 79; Jack Diggens, 75; and Sara Rollins, 95, died of asphyxiation. The fire was ruled accidental. [Names five residents who survived, one of whom, Amos Morris, about 80, was hospitalized.]

“Henson said that the fire department received the call at 6:04 a.m. Saturday. When the fire trucks arrived at the home, flames were coming out of the front of the house.

“State Fire Marshal Louie Hopkins arrived in Greenville Saturday afternoon and toured the ruins of the nursing home. He said he did not know at that time what had caused the fire, but that he was ‘pretty sure’ it started in the bathroom.

“Henson said he did not know what started the fir but added, ‘There wasn’t a heater in the bathroom so it looks like it must have been started by a match or a cigarette or something like that.’ He said he asked if anyone was in the house and was told no. But, a few minutes later when police arrived, Lt. H. L. Cook said he contacted Weaver and was told that about four people were still in the house. Firemen brought out, three men and a woman, all asphyxiation victims. Three died of asphyxiation; the fourth was Morris. The bodies of the four women who were burned beyond recognition were found later in the charred ruins of the front of the house. They were identified by the room in which their bodies were found.

“Mrs. Weaver told police she had checked the house and residents at midnight and again at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. All was fine, she said. Then, at about 6 a.m., she said, she heard Katie Barner (one of two women in…wire cages) screaming and went to see what was the matter. Mrs. Weaver said that she then saw smoke from the front room and heard the patients calling out ‘smoke, smoke.’ Ashe opened the front door and then ran to the back of the house to tell the rest of her family. Wash Weaver said he was awakened by his niece and that he ran to the front of the house, saw the smoke and saw flames coming from the bathroom. He went outside, grabbed a hoe and knocked out a window in the front room. He also yelled for someone to call the fire department.

“John Weaver said the phone in his parents home had no dial tone so he ran to a neighbor’s house to call the fire department. Henson said that when firemen arrived, the flames and smoke were going strong.

“Weaver said the four women who survived the fire will stay temporarily in a vacant house of his three doors down from the nursing home. He and his family, he said, will stay next door with neighbors. Arrangements were also made for the women to stay temporarily in the county Poor House, but they had not been moved there 6 p.m. Saturday.” (Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “Fire claims 7 elderly lives at Weaver’s ‘nursing home.’ 1-19-1969, p. 1.)

Jan 19 Delta Democrat-Times Editorial: “Seven human beings – aged, infirm and poverty-stricken – died early Saturday when fire swept Mrs. Carrie Weaver’s nursing home in Greenville. A coroner’s jury ruled the deaths accidental. In the strictest legal sense of the term, they were. But it was no accident that the seven who died, and the fortunate five who did not, had to live in an institution which the state superintendent of nursing home services two months ago bluntly said was being operated illegally. It was the result of deliberate decisions made on the local, county and state levels. It was also the result of decisions which have been too long deferred in Mississippi.

“When the Delta Democrat-Times first revealed the shocking conditions which existed at the Weaver home last November, a number of public officials had their say. A few ducked behind a no comment. The home was justified as ‘better than having those poor people burn up in some shack.’ Another official said he felt that the inmates, two of whom lived in a locked cage, were having their lives prolonged by living there. A fire department representative conceded that the home did not come up to standard.

“The Weavers’ home was not licensed by the state, although any place ‘housing four or more persons, unrelated to the operator, who are provided rooms, meals and other personal care’ should have been closed if it did not have a state license. ‘We have to be tough in licensing homes, because we’d be partially responsible if one should catch fire,’ Julian Alsobrooks of the state nursing home services said in November. ‘With old people, many of whom are mentally if not physically disabled, this is always a danger.’ They were prophetic words.

“But the Weaver home was never closed. The Welfare Department and the Washington County Health Department continued to assist the Weavers. Many Greenvillians gave the inmates Christmas presents or otherwise indicated that they were shocked at the conditions there, but nothing really changed. The state’s continuing failure to pass a Medicaid bill, which would help provide nursing home assistance to the indigent, remains an almost insurmountable obstacle to providing the kind of care that persons such as those at the Weavers’ really need.

And so on Saturday morning seven old people died as a result of the fire. Accidental? Perhaps we will feel better if we manage to convince ourselves that it was all an unavoidable accident, but in our hearts we know it wasn’t. One decisive act by a public official could have prevented it by forcing the home to meet minimum standards or close up. Real public indignation about conditions at the home, and response to them, could have prevented it. State action on Medicaid might have prevented it.

“But none of this happened. What we now rush officially to label as accidental deaths were closer to murder. The murderers were public apathy and official inaction. None of us will be brought to trial for what we allowed to happen. The coroners’ jury verdict will stand. But we know it tells only half the story – one which will be repeated in several variations again and again until we decide that age, poverty and infirmity must not automatically mean a rendezvous with death at Carrie Weaver’s.” (Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “Accidental death?” [Editorial]. 1-19-1969, p. 4.)

Sources

AP (Associated Press). “Seven Perish in Fire.” The Daily Herald, Biloxi, MS. 1-18-1969, p. 1. Accessed 3-29-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/biloxi-daily-herald-jan-18-1969-p-1/

Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “Accidental death?” [Editorial]. 1-19-1969, p. 4. Accessed 3-29-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/greenville-delta-democrat-times-jan-19-1969-p-4/

Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS. “Fire claims 7 elderly lives at Weaver’s ‘nursing home.’ 1-19-1969, p. 1. Accessed 3-29-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/greenville-delta-democrat-times-jan-19-1969-p-1/

National Fire Protection Association. “Summary of Fire Deaths in Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Homes for the Aged.” Pp 311-313 in: United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging. Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg. Washington: 4-25-1979. Accessed 3-4-2022 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=hyotAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true