1950 — Jan 7, Fire, St. Elizabeth’s Women’s Psychopathic Bldg., Mercy Hospital, Davenport IA-41

— 41 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 334.
— 41 Fire Engineering. “Second Major Hospital Fire Takes Forty-one Lives.” V103/Is.2, 2-1-1950.
— 41 NFPA. “Davenport, Iowa, Hospital Fire.” The Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 3, January, 1950.
— 41 NFPA. Deadliest Large-Loss Fires. “Deadliest Hospital Fires in the United States.” 1984.
— 41 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 41 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
— 41 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, p. 6.

Narrative Information

NFPA: “Fire, discovered at an undetermined time prior to 2:06 a.m. on January 7, 1950, in the St. Elizabeth’s Women’s Psychopathic Building of the Mercy Hospital, Davenport, Iowa, took the lives of 41 women. Forty of these were mental patients, mostly elderly, and one was an attendant. Save for the locked doors and barred windows, furred interior finish on exterior walls and partition construction, the fire was almost an exact replica of the which occurred at the St. Anthony Hospital, Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949, in which 74 lives were lost….

“There was one outside fire escape but access to it was blocked by bared windows….

“A patient undergoing periodic treatment ignited the curtains in her room on the first floor near the fire escape in protest over being locked in her room, which was not normal treatment for this patient. Fire is believed to have spread from the curtain to the window frame and behind the furred wood lath finish on the inside of the exterior wall to the second floor and attic. The light pressed wallboard partition ignited and the fire spread from the room into the acoustically treated corridor after the patient broke out the wired glass transom and escaped over the transom and out the front entrance. The combustible fiberboard of the corridor ceiling spread fire through the corridor of the first floor. Also contributing to the rapidly spreading fire in this structure were ancient brick chimneys with hot air flue openings at each floor, long unused but not capped at the eaves. These are believed to have spread fire rapidly to the attic space.

“Two attendants were in the building at the time, one sleeping and one awake. The one who was awake died in the fire…

“Due to the locked doors, the mental condition of patients who wanted to stay in their rooms or once out of the building wanted to return, and the lack of a prearranged procedure for evacuation of the building in case of emergency, it was possible to rescue only 25 of the 64 occupants. Two of these rescued died later. Only a very short space of time was available to the firemen to get patients out owing to the exceedingly rapid spread of fire through the old building….

“The fire department on arrival found the main and second floors extensively involved. Their efforts at rescue operations were greatly handicapped by the barred windows. Chopping the bars out of wood window frames necessarily took time and delayed rescue. The fire department was responsible for saving 19 of the 23 survivors and did everything that was humanly possible….

“It is generally agreed that an automatic sprinkler system, properly installed and maintained, would have prevented this tragedy. Over a period of about twenty-five years, fire department officials had repeatedly suggested automatic sprinklers…” (NFPA 1950, 145-146)

“What about the locked doors and barred windows? These are necessary in certain types of mental institutions, but electric devices can be installed to release all locks simultaneously by the operation of a switch at a central point in case of fire or other emergency. Windows can be barred from the inside but with outside fastenings that can be quickly released by firemen on ladders.

“How many more such fires must occur before hospital construction and protection reach the point where all patients in all hospitals will be reasonably safe from fire?” (NFPA. “Davenport, Iowa, Hospital Fire.” 1950, p. 147.)

Sources

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

Fire Engineering. “Second Major Hospital Fire Takes Forty-one Lives.” Vol. 103, Issue 2, 2-1-1950. Accessed 6-5-2020 at: https://www.fireengineering.com/1950/02/01/291785/second-major-hospital-fire-takes-forty-one-lives/#gref

National Fire Protection Association. “Davenport, Iowa, Hospital Fire.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 43, No. 3, January, 1950. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/Research/HospitalsMercy.pdf

National Fire Protection Association. Deadliest Large-Loss Fires. “Deadliest Hospital Fires in the United States.” 1984. Accessed at: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=954&itemID=41552&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Deadliest/large-loss%20fires

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 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