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| Firefighter searches Fitchville ruins |
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| Ruins of Fitchville patient ward |
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Flames ripped through the Golden Age Nursing Home near Fitchvillle, Ohio, before dawn on Nov. 23, 1963. Sixty-three people perished.
received little notice at the time because President John F. Kennedy was assassinated a day earlier in Dallas.
Fire Engineering magazine described the catastrophe was "a series of fires, blending into one big blaze."
There were no sprinklers and no manual fire alarms at the nursing home. Many patients were restrained and died in their beds. Others were trapped behind in wheelchairs too wide for the exits. Even so, 21 patients survived along with three staff members.
Trucker Henry Dahman, of Sarber, Pennsylvania, reported the fire at 5 a.m. as he drove north along Route 250, according to the Mansfield News-Journal. Flames were shooting from the roof and walls, he told firemen. Dahman went back after sounding the alarm and tried to douse flames with a fire extinguisher.
The New London Fire Department, the closest to Fitchville, was first to reach the scene at 5:10 a.m., and by that time "the place was on fire from one end to the other," the New London fire chief, Al Walters, said.
"All records and files were destroyed in roaring flames and smoke that burst open cabinets, wrecked all medical and surgical equipment, melted bedsteads and left little but smouldering ruins of the one-story brick and concrete-block structure," the Mansfield News Journal reported. "Their loss complicated attempts of police and funeral directors to name and number the dead."
Recalling the fire, Fitchville Township trustee Robert White, who was in eighth grade at the time, told the Sandusky Register: “First JFK was killed, then the fire. It was horrible.”
Some of the victims were buried in a common grave.
MARIETTA - 1970
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| Photo: Marietta Firefighters Local 442 Ohio Governor James Rhodes (left) tours scene of Marietta fire |
On Jan. 9, 1970, fire destroyed a modern, ranch-style Harmar House nursing home in Marietta, Ohio, killing 21 patients and injuring 23 others.
Most of the dead were women between 85 and 94 years old, some confined to beds with raised iron side railings along the sides, some strapped in their beds or in wheelchairs, United Press International reported.
Marietta Fire Chief Beman Biehl, quoted by UPI, said there was no sprinkler system because it wasn't called for by state code in a one-floor facility.
When Marietta Police Captain James Barr arrived at the blaze, he said "smoke was rolling and they were removing people from the building .. firemen, police and neighbors ... anyone there that could help."
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FITCHVILLE HISTORICAL
MARKER
Located one mile north of Fitchville, the Golden Age Nursing Home caught fire and burned to the ground at 4:45 a.m., November 23, 1963, killing 63 of 84 patients.
Fire departments from New London, Greenwich, North Fairfield, and Plymouth responded.
Ignited by the arcing of overloaded wiring, the incident called for action to require sprinklers, automatic fire detection systems, and electrical wiring compliance to building codes in all nursing homes.
The worst tragedy of its kind in the nation, the incident was overshadowed by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was not widely reported.
Twenty-one unclaimed bodies were interred in a 60-foot grave in Woodlawn Cemetery in Norwalk.
