1979 — April 2, Fire, Wayside Inn Boarding Home/Care Facility, Farmington, MO — 25
— 25 Halamandaris and Holton. Memorandum: “Issues Raised by Recent Fires…,” 1979, p. 3.
— 25 NFPA. Investigation Report: Wayside Inn Fire, Farmington, Missouri…April 2, 1979.
— 25 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 25 Peterson, Carl L. “25 Die in ‘Boarding House’ Fire.” Fire Journal, November 1979, p. 26.
— 25 U.S. Congress, House. Boarding Home Fires: New Jersey Hearing, March 9, 1981, p. 14.
— 25 US Congress. Boarding Home Fires: The Tip of the Iceberg (Hearing 4-25-1979), p. 5.
Narrative Information
Halamandaris and Holton: “The fire began at midnight or later, April 1 and burned for several hours among the electrical wiring in the kitchen ceiling. The best guess is that the cause was a short circuit. The alarm was turned in at 4:49 am. The fire department arrived at 4:52. The building was a one story U-shaped structure with exterior of granite and wood frame interior. The facility was equipped with a manual alarm system but it is not known if this was activated. The facility also claimed it had several smoke detectors although no evidence of these was found among the fire remains.
“There were 37 residents in the building at the time of the fire; twenty-five died of smoke inhalation although many of the victims were beyond recognition. Thirteen of the dead were veterans who had been placed into the boarding home. Four more among the injured were victims. (In fact, the VA has placed 109 veterans into a total of 24 different boarding homes in the St. Louis area.)
“The home did not have a sprinkling system. It did not have heat detectors. Neither the fire department nor any other State agency had inspected the facility. Boarding homes such as this need meet no State building standards – only those local codes that are applicable. In this case, there were no local codes applicable. In short, the facility was not required to meet any kind of fire safety standards.” (Halamandaris and Holton. Memorandum: “Issues Raised by Recent Fires…,” 1979, p. 3.)
National Fire Protection Association: “An early morning fire on April 2, 1979 killed 25 of the 37 residents of the Wayside Inn, a dormitory facility located in St. Francois County, Missouri about 1/2 mile outside the city limits of Farmington, Missouri. The one-story building was of unprotected wood frame construction with a stone and brick veneer. There were adequate exits, some single station battery powered smoke detectors, and a manually operated evacuation alarm. The building was not equipped with automatic sprinklers.
“The fire was discovered by the single attendant in the building who was sleeping and awoke to the smell of smoke. She attempted to alert some of the residents, assisted two of the residents to an exit and eventually had to flee through a bedroom window. Eleven of the twelve surviving residents and the attendant escaped prior to notification of the fire department. The twelfth resident who survived found his way out of the building an estimated 30 minutes after the arrival of the fire department.
“The fire is believed to have originated in the attic, probably from an electrical fault and burned for a considerable period of time in the attic before dropping into the first story space. The fire department was notified from the owner’s house next door to the facility and responded initially with a single pumper. Eventually, fire fighters from seven other fire departments joined rescue and fire fighting efforts on the scene. The building was totally consumed by the fire…
“The facility, licensed under Missouri law as a boarding house for the aged, was located…in an unincorporated rural area of St. Francois County, 1/2 mile from the city limits of Farmington, Missouri. Farmington is the capital of St. Francois County and is located 70 miles south of St. Louis.
“The one-story unprotected wood frame building was “U” shaped with an additional wing extending from the bottom of the “U.” It is believed to have originally been built in 1949 or 1950 as an “L” shaped building. Rooms 10 through 30, the kitchen, dining room and office were located in this original “L” shaped portion….
“The people who lived in this facility ranged in age from 24 to 96 years old. They came to the facility from three backgrounds. About one-third had been residents at the state mental hospital and had been moved to the Wayside Inn as part of a program to de-institutionalize people with mental disorders. They all had been certified by medical authorities as capable of taking care of themselves.
“Seventeen of the residents were veterans who had been assisted in placement at the Wayside Inn through the Veterans Administration’s Community Home Program. Under this program, persons being discharged from a VA hospital with no family and no place to stay are supplied with a list of places in the vicinity of the hospital. The veteran selects a home and is responsible for his own living expenses. The VA inspects the facilities on a voluntary basis with the permission of the owner and will make recommendations for improvement of life safety, as well as health and care.
“The remainder of the residents were individuals who chose to live at the Wayside Inn rather than maintain a separate home for themselves. Some had families living in the area. All of the residents were ambulatory, and there was no evidence of wheelchairs or walkers in the facility….
“The facility was last inspected on December 5, 1978 by the Missouri Bureau of Boarding Home Licensure, at which time the inspector questioned the mental or physical condition of eight of the residents and requested physicians’ statements as to their ability to continue to reside in this facility. Such statements were received in all eight cases. Of these eight, six were residents of the dormitory facility at the time of the fire and only one survived the incident….
“Twelve of the 13 people who escaped had done so prior to the arrival of the Fire Department. At least one person who was seen outside was later found dead inside….
“This fire and several other recent fires raise a question as to whether people who have had mental disorders or are recovering from severe drug-related problems are truly capable of self-preservation at the time of an emergency?….
“The Missouri law recognizes the need to license facilities such as the Wayside Inn but then sets no minimum standards for fire protection for such facilities. To require a facility to only comply with local fire codes and in the absence of such codes accept the facility with only a statement that there are no codes is certainly not ensuring the safety of the people the law is designed to protect….” (NFPA. “Investigation Report: Wayside Inn Fire, Farmington, Missouri…April 2, 1979.”)
Peterson: “Twenty-five of the 37 residents of the Wayside Inn, a licensed boarding house (dormitory facility) near Farmington, Missouri, died in a fire at the facility on April 2, 1979. There were adequate exits in the building, some single-station, battery-powered smoke detectors, and a manually operated evacuation alarm, but the mere presence of these building features was not enough to prevent deaths in this unsprinklered facility. The major factors that led to the deaths were the undivided attic, where the fire began, the lack of a complete fire detection system, and lack of advanced fire-emergency planning and training for the staff and residents.
“The Building: The facility, licensed under Missouri law as a hoarding house for the aged, was located in an unincorporated rural area of St. Francois County, one-half mile from the city limits of Farmington, Missouri. Farmington is the capital of St. Francois County and is located 70 miles south of St. Louis. The one-story, unprotected wood-frame building was U-shaped, with an additional wing extending from the bottom of the U… It is believed to have originally been built in 1949 or 1950 as an L-shaped building. Booms 10 through 30, plus the kitchen, dining room. and office, were located in the original L-shaped portion.
“This original portion of the building had a crawl space under a wood floor, a 4-inch Missouri red granite veneer, and a gabled wood roof with composition shingle covering. The corridors in this section were 5 feet wide. Corridor walls were made of 1/2-inch combustible fiberboard on wood studding. Ceilings in the corridors of this section were of 1/2-inch gypsum board. Rooms were finished in 1/2-inch gypsum board on walls and ceilings, although the ceiling gypsum board had been fastened over 1/2-inch combustible fiberboard. Floors in this section were covered with carpeting that had an integral rubber backing. About five years ago, the wing completing the U was added. This wing housed Rooms I through 9. It also had a 4-inch Missouri red granite veneer facing, a poured-in-place concrete floor with a crawl space beneath, and a gabled wood roof with composition shingle covering. This roof was connected to the roof of the original building in such a way as to form an undivided attic space over the entire U-shaped portion of the building….
“The facility was last inspected on December 5, 1978 by the Missouri Bureau of Boarding Home Licensure, at which time the inspector questioned the mental or physical condition of eight of the residents and requested physicians’ statements as to their ability to continue to reside in this facility. Such statements were received by the Bureau in all eight cases. Of these eight, six were residents of the dormitory facility at the time of the fire, and only one survived the incident….
“The facility operated with a staff of six people plus the owners, although there was only one attendant at the facility during the night. This attendant lived in one of the rooms (Room 10) and was allowed to sleep during the night hours.
“So far as could be determined during the NFPA investigation and the discussion with survivors, there had been no fire emergency training for the staff and no fire evacuation drills for the residents….
“…licensing requirements were passed in 1973 and were contained in the Revised Statutes of Missouri, Paragraphs 198.4(X) through 198.440. The requirements stipulated that a boarding house must conform to the fire, housing, and general sanitation regulations and zoning classifications of the location. In this case, there were no regulations in effect because the facility was located in unincorporated county area, and there were no general state requirements. A statement to that effect was on file with the Bureau….
“The fire started sometime before 4:30 am on the morning of April 2, 1979. The State Fire Marshal’s Office determined that the fire originated in the attic over the kitchen, and the most probable ignition source was electrical in nature.
“At approximately 4:30 am, the only attendant in the building, who was asleep in Room 10, awoke and became aware of smoke in the building. Leaving her room, she saw fire at the ceiling level (and possibly in the attic) in the area of a linen closet, which was at the rear of the building, and approximately 20 feet from the door of her room. The fire-spread at that time was through the undivided attic area over the U-shaped building.
“The attendant went to Room 12, where she alerted the occupant and instructed her to go through the bathroom between Rooms 11 and 12 to alert the two occupants of Room 11. For some reason, only one of the two occupants of Room 11 came hack through the bathroom, and the attendant led the two women (one from Room 11 and one from Room 12) to a sliding glass door in the hall between Rooms 9 and 10, and told them to go outside. The attendant then went down the corridor toward the southeast exit door, banging on doors in an attempt to alert the residents. A resident of Room 9 was with her, but he broke away and returned to his room, where he later died.
“The attendant stated that when she arrived at the southeast exit door, she could not reach the door because of bodies on the floor. She then went into Room 6, where she opened the window and escaped through the window. The attendant’s description of bodies in the corridor did not agree with what other persons, including fire fighters, found.
“The attendant then assembled those residents who had escaped. and they went out to the street, where they attempted to stop passing vehicles. When two ears passed without stopping, the residents and the attendant went to the Inn owner’s house, located next to the Wayside Inn, and hanged on the door until they awakened him.
“The owner instructed his daughter to call the fire department from her own telephone in their house while he telephoned his brother, who was also an owner of the Inn. He then went to the Wayside Inn to assist in rescue operations, but was driven back front entering the building by heat and smoke.
“At 4:50 am, the Farmington Fire Department received the call from the owner’s daughter. The first response by the fire department was a single, 500-gallon per-minute pumper with 500 gallons of water manned by one volunteer fire fighter. Other volunteers responded directly to the fire scene. Because this facility was outside the city limits of Farmington, only one pumper was authorized to respond. The fire chief ordered an equipment van to the scene 13 minutes later, but two other pumpers from the Farmington Fire Department did not respond. Seven other fire departments eventually responded with pumpers and tankers, and at the height of the fire, 73 fire fighters and 15 pieces of equipment were on the scene.
“Fire fighters arrived at 4:55 am and reported that the fire had vented through the roof over the kitchen area. A slight drizzle caused the smoke to hover near the ground. After the arrival of the equipment van (which was dispatched at 5:03 am), fire fighters using self-contained breathing apparatus removed 11 persons from the building before the fire became too intense to continue the search. Despite resuscitation efforts on the scene by fire fighters and ambulance attendants, none of the persons removed by the fire fighters survived. The bodies of the other 14 victims were recovered after the fire had been extinguished….
“Twelve of the thirteen people who escaped did so prior to the arrival of fire fighters. At least one person who was seen outside was later found dead inside the building.
“Fire fighters were initially led to believe that the southeast and south wings had been evacuated, and they therefore concentrated their rescue attempts on the north wing. They removed eight persons from this north wing, although all of them were dead. While they were doing so, one man who had passed out in Room 5 in the southeast wing apparently regained consciousness enough to get out of the building through the southeast exit door. At that point, fire fighters realized that the southeast wing had not been evacuated, and began rescue attempts there. They removed three people from that wing, but all were dead. No one was removed from the south wing until after the fire had been extinguished….
“Autopsy data showed the cause of death to be asphyxiation; the bodies of most of the victims had carboxyhemoglobin levels around 60 percent….” (Peterson, Carl L. “25 Die in ‘Boarding House’ Fire.” Fire Journal, November 1979, pp. 26-32.)
US Congress, House of Reps. (Tip of the Iceberg Hearing): “The fire began at midnight or later, April 1[1] and burned for several hours among the electrical wiring in the kitchen ceiling. The best guess is that the cause was a short circuit. The alarm was turned in at 4:49 am. The fire department arrived at 4:52. The building was a one story U-shaped structure with exterior of granite and wood frame interior. The facility was equipped with a manual alarm system but it is not known if this was activated. The facility also claimed it had several smoke detectors although no evidence of these was found among the fire remains. There were 37 residents in the building at the time of the fire; twenty-five died of smoke inhalation although many of the victims were burned beyond recognition. Thirteen of the dead were veterans who had been placed into the boarding home. Four more among the injured were veterans. (In fact, the VA has placed 109 veterans into a total of 24 different boarding homes in the St. Louis area.)….” (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, p. 5.).
Sources
Halamandaris, Val. J., David Holton, and Nancy Smythe. “Issues Raised by Recent Fires in Boarding Homes in Missouri, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.” Memorandum to Chairman Claude Pepper and Members, House Select Committee on Aging, from Special Counsel Val J. Halamandaris and Chief Investigator David Holton and Investigative Researcher Nancy Smythe, in Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg (Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives), Washington, DC: April 25, 1979.
National Fire Protection Association. Investigation Report: Wayside Inn Fire, Farmington, Missouri, 25 Fatalities, April 2, 1979. Boston, MA: NFPA, 1979.
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
Peterson, Carl L. “25 Die in ‘Boarding House’ Fire.” Fire Journal, November 1979, pp. 26-32.
United States Congress, House of Representatives. Boarding Home Fires: New Jersey (Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, 97th Congress, 1st Session, Jan 21, 1981, Trenton, NJ).
Washington, DC: GPO, 1981.
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.
[1] If it was after midnight it would be April 2.