1972 — Apr 4, Fair Hills Boarding Home for elderly fire/unstaffed night, Rosecrans, WI–10

–10 NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1972,” Fire Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3, May 1973, pp. 71.
–10 U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 462.
–10 Willey. “Fair Hills Boarding Home Fire.” NFPA Fire Journal, V66, N5, Sept. 1972, p. 53.

Narrative Information

National Fire Protection Association: “The Fair Hills Boarding Home in Rosecrans, Wis-consin, had been classified as a boarding home and thus was not subject to state laws covering health care facili¬ties. Ten of the 12 residents, ranging in age from 60 to 88, died in a fire on April 4 that originated during the night in an upholstered chair. Combustible in¬terior finish, open stairways, lack of a fixed fire protection system, and lack of a full-time staff were factors in this fatal fire.” (NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1972,” Fire Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3, May 1973, pp. 71.)

U.S. Senate: “Constructed in 1893 as a two-story farmhouse with basement and attic, the Fair Hills Boarding Home was made of brick with wood joists. It had been converted to a 29-bed nursing home but was dropped to the class of boarding home by the State of Wisconsin in 1967 because the facility could not comply with new Federal fire safety requirements. There were no automatic detection or alarm systems. The manual alarm system was not connected to the local fire department. The only other protection were fire extinguishers. The fire is thought to have begun at 11:15 p.m. in an upholstered chair where one of the residents is be¬lieved to have been smoking. One person was required to be on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, however, from 5 p.m. until 10 a.m., a 70-year-old male resident was in charge. The fire department did not receive the alarm until 11:35 p.m. Ten of twelve residents died. The State of Wisconsin established that three of the patients were physically ill and should have been transferred to nursing homes.” (U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 462.)

Wiley/NFPA: “A fire in the Fair Hills Boarding Home, Rosecrans, Wisconsin, on April 4, 1972, killed 10 of the 12 residents. The facility, housing elderly residents ranging in age from 60 to 88, was not covered by the state laws for health care facilities because it had been classified as a boarding home. The fire, which originated in an upholstered chair, could bot be controlled by the unattended residents. Combustible interior finish, an open stairway, lack of a fixed fire protection system, and lack of a full-time staff were factors in this fatal fire.

“At approximately 11:15 pm a 60-year-old male resident was roused by a commotion on the first floor. As he descended the stairs to the first floor he could hear a woman resident calling for help. An upholstered chair in the southwest corner of the dining room was on fire. The woman resident went to use a telephone located in the kitchen to call the Fire Department and the mail resident, aided by his roommate, attempted to extinguish the fire using a coffeepot of water from the kitchen. The fire continued to burn, filling the area with smoke and involving plastic window draperies adjacent. Falling material from the burning plastic draperies burned his right hand. He retreated from the area as smoke conditions became worse and shouted for others to follow. He went back up the stairs, attempted to warn other residents of the fire, and proceeded to the door leading to the north fire escape. After fumbling with the knob in the smoke and darkness, he opened the door and ran to a nearby dwelling for help.

“Hearing a knock at her door, the next-door neighbor looked outside to see the man running away from her house toward the boarding home. She called to him and he informed her of the fire. Glancing in that direction she could see a bright yellow glow coming from the west side of the building. She went to her phone and dialed the operator to notify the Fire Department. The Denmark Fire Department, four miles away, received the alarm at 11:35 pm. The neighbor then ran to the boarding home with the resident and called to others still inside to alert them of the fire. Except for one occupant who was later rescued, no one else left the building. The yellow glow was no longer visible, but crackling fire could be heard as smoke drifted from the building.

“The neighbor then went back to her house and called a local tavern for assistance. At approximately 11:43 people at the tavern called the Meribel Volunteer Fire Department, two miles from the boarding home. The Meribel Department responded with a pumper and a tanker. Members of the Department and tavern patrons began rescue operations five to six minutes after being notified. Only a light haze of smoke was showing when the pumper arrived. A…hose line was advanced to the kitchen door and a fire fighter broke the glass door panel to gain entry. The fire was concentrated mainly in the dining room, and spot fires in ceiling tile and furnishings were easily extinguished. Heavy smoke and heat were experience throughout the building. A pumper and a tank truck with additional manpower arrived from the Denmark Fire Department, which assisted in the continuing search and rescue activities.

“Nine of the 12 residents died that night. The next day the death toll reached ten when one female resident died in a hospital. Another resident remained in critical condition. The only resident to escape unaided suffered a second-degree burn to his right hand….

“The structure housing the Fair Hills Boarding Home had been built as a farmhouse in 1893 in the rural Rosecrans community in Manitowoc County, approximately 20 miles south of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Approximately 25 years ago the building had been converted to a 29-bed nursing home facility. That operation continued until 1967, when the State of Wisconsin revoked the nursing home license because management could not meet the fire-resistive construction or automatic sprinkler requirements. These requirements, contained in the Nursing Home Rules of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, are applicable to existing nursing homes and are enforced by the Division of Health of the Department of Health and Social Services.

“The facility continued to operate as a boarding home for the elderly. Boarding homes are not licensed by the State and operate legally provided that no more than two unrelated individuals requiring health care are housed in the facility. An average of 13 persons resided in the 20-bed facility. Three parttime employees were retained for cooking and housekeeping duties. Every day, seven days a week, there was one employee on duty from 10 am to 5 pm. From 5 pm until 10 am a 74-year-old male resident was in charge of the facility.

“The two-story-and-basement-and-attic building measured 44 by 62 feet. The basement housed utilities and laundry facilities. A kitchen, a dining room, five bedrooms, and a TV and lounge area were located on the first floor… There were five bedrooms and two storage rooms on the second floor. The attic was used for storage. The structure was of ordinary brick and wood-joist construction. An open wood stairway was located between the first and second floors. Wood-panel doors were installed at the top of the stairways from the basement. A wood-panel door was also provided at the foot of the attic stairs on the second floor. The interior partitions were plaster and wood lath on wood studs. The floors were wood on wood joist. The interior finish was painted plaster on walls and ceilings throughout, with the exception of the dining room, which had a wood wainscot and a combustible fiber tile ceiling….our exterior doors served as exits from the first floor. Doors leading to two steel fire escapes provided exits from the second floor. All the exit doors were marked by illuminated exit signs but swung against the direction of travel. There were no automatic fire-extinguishing or detection systems. The home had a manual fire alarm system with UL-listed components, including four pull stations and two alarm bells, arranged to sound local internal alarm bells but not connected to the Fire Department. First-floor pull stations were located in the dining room and the bedroom corridor. Second-floor pull stations were located at the two exit doors. Several carbon dioxide and pressurized water fire extinguishers were located throughout the facility.

“The Manitowoc County Department of Social Services requested a state nursing home consultant to inspect the Fair Hills Boarding Home. The consultant conducted the inspection on March 23, 1972, to determine if the custodial care home was operating illegally as a nursing home without a license, i.e., housing three or more unrelated individuals requiring care. The inspection report described the condition of three residents requiring health care:

Resident B]…a bed patient, has no use of her legs, is incontinent of both bowel and bladder, does not speak fluently and needs to be lifted in and out of bed by two people.

[Resident D]…Also incontinent of bowel and bladder, is mentally confused and/or retarded, needs constant direction and guidance in all daily living activities.

[Resident J]…Somewhat mentally retarded and withdrawn…was hospitalized in February 1972 for a skin and circulatory condition of both legs and retuned to this home after hospitalization. The legs are both swollen, scaly, reddened, and sore to touch. [Author’s note: The consultant verified with Resident J’s physician that she needed health care.]

“On April 4 the boarding home operator received a registered letter from the State Department of Health and Social Services. The letter required that within 15 days Residents B, D, and J be removed from the boarding home and placed in a licensed nursing home. Those three residents, along with seven others, died as a result of the fire the night of April 4.

“Within a few hours of the tragic fire officials from the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department and the Fire Marshal Bureau, State of Wisconsin Department of Justice, began an investigation to determine the factors responsible for the fatalities. Those investigators sub¬sequently testified before the Manitowoc County Coro¬ner in an inquest concerning the fire. Officials from the State Fire Marshal Bureau determined that the fire originated in the dining room in the upholstered chair. Although the exact circumstances leading to ignition of the upholstery are not known, smoking materials used by one of the residents were believed to be in¬volved. As was described earlier, the fire involved plas¬tic curtains adjacent to the chair. The National Bureau of Standards Fire Technology Section conducted flam¬mability tests of both plastic draperies and window shade samples obtained from the home….none of the drapery samples passed the char length criteria….

“Since the residents could not control the fire, it grew in intensity and flames impinged on the combustible ceiling tile. The fire then spread through the dining room toward the stairway. The damage in the dining room indicated that flashover occurred there, with charring of combustible furnishings and wood wainscot and trim. The heaviest charring was in the southwest corner at the point of origin. Ceiling tile was charred, with the heaviest damage toward the point of origin. Flames did not penetrate the plaster ceiling above the tile, and the fire did not extend into partitions at any point. The door between the dining room and the hall- way at the foot of the stairs was open and fire spread into that hallway to involve the wood stairs. The door and wood trim in this hallway were charred and the wall and ceiling paint was heavily blistered. The stairs were charred with equal damage from the bottom to the top of the stairs, with the exception of the top two or three steps, which were slightly less damaged. A vinyl runner on the stairs was completely consumed except on the top three stairs. There was no charring of the wood trim beyond the open stairway in the second- floor corridor. The walls and ceilings in the second-floor hallway were scorched, with less damage on the south end of the hallway. The fire apparently did not propagate beyond the stairway….

“During the investigation the location of some of the victims in the building remained undetermined. Table 1 and Figures 1 and 2 show the known location of bod¬ies. The three bodies clustered in the kitchen were be¬lieved to be Resident H (who tried to call the Fire Department), Resident C (who assisted in the extin¬guishing attempts), and Resident I. Another group of three bodies was located in Room 3, adjacent to the ex¬terior door. One of those victims was believed to be Resident E. Resident B, who was bedridden, was found in her bed in Room 1. The body of Resident F was found on the second floor in front of the door leading to the north fire escape….

“The findings of the inquest determined that the 10 victims in this fire died of accidental as¬phyxiation due to carbon monoxide and smoke inhala¬tion.

“The hoarding home operator was later charged by the County District Attorney with operating a nursing home without a license. The misdemeanor carries a maximum fine of $100. At the time of this writing the case was pending.

“Discussion: This fire is similar to other large-loss of-life fires in homes for the aged.; The residents of the Fair Hills Home were typical of elderly patients who no longer have the mental and physical faculties they once enjoyed….

“The residents of the Fair Hills Boarding Home were without full-time qualified supervision, and they could not react adequately under emergency con¬ditions. The presence of alcohol in the blood of four of the victims may have further interfered with their reactions….As described earlier, the fire was rather slow in develop¬ment and was discovered in a reasonable time by two residents in the kitchen and dining-room areas. Quali¬fied staff personnel could have promptly alerted resi¬dents and organized evacuation, could have notified the Fire Department, and, possibly, could have con¬trolled the incipient fire. The attempts at extinguish¬ment by residents did not control the fire and further endangered them. An automatic sprinkler system — re¬quired for non-fire-resistive nursing homes in Wisconsin — could have controlled the fire….”

[Table I notes there were four female and six male fatalities, ranging in age from 69 to 88.]

(Willey, A. Elwood. “Fair Hills Boarding Home Fire.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 66, No. 5, September 1972, pp. 53-57.)

Newspaper

April 5: “Rosecrans – Fire of undetermined origin Tuesday night claimed the lines of nine…residents at Fair Hills Rest Home, located northwest of this Manitowoc County community in the Town of Cooperstown. This tragedy at the privately-owned home for senior citizens was the worst in Manitowoc County history since nine persons were killed in a two-car collision on Memorial Day, 1937, south of Newtonburg on old Highway 42. The victims in Tuesday’s rest home blaze included six me and three women… Two of the remaining…residents were taken to Holy Family Hospital, where one was listed in critical condition. Both are women….

“The dead identified by Coroner James E. Powers, with age estimates obtained from other sources, follow:

Helen Grolle, in her 80s; [84]
John Benthien, no age;
Ralph Ade, no age; [72]
Mary Kubela, about 92;
Henry Brockman, 77;
John Johnson, 69;
Arnold Kreiser, 80;
August Borchardt, 74 and
Alice Kennedy, 72.

“…Two sisters of Mrs. Grolle, Olga and Alma Moss…were taken to Holy Family Hospital. A hospital spokesman said Olga Moss was in critical condition and Amla Moss was listed s satisfactory….” (Manitowoc Herald-Times, WI. “Nine Die in Fire at Rest Home.” 4-5-1972, p. 1.)

Sources

Manitowoc Herald-Times, WI. “Nine Die in Fire at Rest Home.” 4-5-1972, p. 1. Accessed 1-25-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/manitowoc-herald-times-apr-05-1972-p-1/

Manitowoc Herald-Times, WI. “Obituaries.” 4-6-1972, p. 7. Accessed 1-25-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/manitowoc-herald-times-apr-06-1972-p-7/

National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1972,” Fire Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3, May 1973, pp. 71-74 & 102.

United States Senate, Special Committee on Aging, Subcommittee on Long-Term Care. Nursing Home Care in the United States: Failure in Public Policy. Supporting Paper No. 5, The Continuing Chronicle of Nursing Home Fires. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1975. Accessed 1-24-2022 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nursing_Home_Care_in_the_United_States_T/LJeuVO1d9k0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Nursing+Home+Care+in+the+United+States%22&printsec=frontcover

Willey, A. Elwood. “Fair Hills Boarding Home Fire.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 66, No. 5, September 1972, pp. 53-57.