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Terrible Toll in Disaster at Cleveland Clinic
[Welland Tribune Thursday, May 16, 1929]
Ninety-Five Known Dead as the Result of Two Explosions.
Poisonous Gas Rushes Through Building When X-ray Films Burned
Cleveland, May 16—Poison gas and two explosions which followed burning the X-ray films in the Cleveland clinic yesterday claimed nearly 100 lives.
There were 95 known dead and hospital authorities worked desperately to administer artificial respiration to 43 more who were overcome. Victims of the disaster were dying at short intervals and physicians sent out appeals for addition oxygen in the fear that the supply in the city might prove insufficient. Oxygen is declared the only effective means of overcoming gas burns.
Nearly all of the deaths were attributed to the deadly gas which filtered through the four-storey brick building slowly at first and then augmented by a second and greater explosion than the first, rushed up from the basement and cut off escape down the stairways and elevators.
Survivors said those asphyxiated were dead, their faces turning a sickly yellowish-brown color, within two minutes after inhaling the gas.
Like War Gas
The fumes were given off by fire of an undetermined origin which destroyed X-ray films in the basement. Some pharmacists said it was bromine gas, while Dr. William E. Lower, one of the founders of the clinic, said it resembled the deadly phosgene gas employed in the great war.
It was ironic that the disaster occurred in the very place where the most advanced instruments and laboratories of science had been turned against pain and death. The clinic was owned principally by Dr. George W. Crile, nationally-known physician, who was too occupied with relief work to comment on the catastrophe.
Despite the heavy loss of life, firemen estimated the property damage at only $50,000.
The first explosion occurred in the basement. On the floors above, waiting rooms were crowded with clinical patients. Many of them died where they sat, some in wheel chair unable to move, as the deadly fumes rapidly penetrated to all floors.
The hollow centre of the building first was filled with gases.The intense heat below sent the fumes swirling upward. Before any one had opportunity to escape, a second blast blew out the skylight and filled the entire building with the deadly fumes. Occupants had no way to escape by the windows and few were able to reach them. These were enveloped by the fumes which hung about the building and they collapsed.
The two street entrances were choked, and the stairways leading to the roof were heavy with the fumes. Every piece of fire apparatus available was centered at the clinic and every vehicle possible was commandeered to remove the bodies.. An hour and a half after the first explosion all had been taken to nearby hospitals.
The first blast was heard by policeman Henry Thorpe, walking two blocks away. He immediately turned in an alarm and ran to the building at Euclid avenue and 93rd street.
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