UPDATED AUGUST 2019
On April 21, 1930, a fire at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus claimed 320 lives.
While the warden braced for a riot, "heroism cropped out in unexpected places," according to a Zanesville newspaper, The Signal. "Liberated convicts gasped fresh air into their lungs, armed themselves with sledge hammers and crowbars and rushed back into the burning tiers."
The blaze - which was apparently started to cover an escape attempt - erupted in the top tier of a cell block along Neil Avenue and spread into other blocks. Built in the late 1800s for 1,500 inmates, the penitentiary housed more than 4,000 on the day of the fire.
The magazine Fire Engineering said: "The large loss of life resulted from delay in opening cells in the doomed sections."
It also said: "At an investigation conducted after the fire, it was learned that no procedure had been drawn for the guards to follow in case of fire. In many instances it was brought out that guards refused to free convicts from cells in the burning sections. Investigators say that if the prisoners were released at once, there would not have been so great a loss of life."
Some inmates won pardons for their acts of heroism, which also led to creation of the Ohio Parole Board in 1931, according to the Ohio Historical Society.
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Some of the dead were listed as from Springfield and Clark County:
ROBERT BRANNICK
ARCHIE JENKINS
ARCHIE MYERS
CHARLES SHERRICK
THOMAS SHERRICK
ROLLAND J. TAYLOR
FRANK TIMBLIN
EARL YOUNG
Brannick was doing time for possession of liquor. Myers was a burglar. The Sherricks were locked up for robbery. Taylor passed bad checks. Timblin was convicted of larceny. Young stole an auto.
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Following is from a report on the fire by the Ohio Inspection Bureau:
A gang of convicts engaged in construction work on the new
concrete cell block, I and K, had discontinued operations about 4:00 P.M. for
the day, or about an hour and a half before the fire was discovered, and the
occupants of G and H cell blocks had been locked in for the night.
Just who actually first observed the fire is unknown, but it was presumably
seen by several at about the same time.
It is thought that a guard in the tower on the outside wall which is a short
distance beyond the north end of the building, where the fire originated, was
among the first and called to someone on the street below who pulled fire alarm
Box 261 at the head of Dublin Ave., as the first call was received by the fire
department at 5:39 P.M. from this location.
The first fire apparatus to arrive was
on the ground in not to exceed two minutes after the call was sent in, and was
promptly admitted at the wagon stockade gate at the corner of Dennison and West
Spring Sts., from where it proceeded into the grounds.
The first equipment to arrive consisted of one truck and three engine companies
and was under the command of Assistant Chief C. W. Ogborn.
The first company to go into action connected to the hydrant at the northwest
corner of the new auditorium and directed a stream from a turret nozzle into
the north window of I and K cell block.
However, the heavy iron grilling in the window caused the stream to be so
broken up as to be rendered ineffective and this line was eventually cut off.
In the meantime, a second pumper had connected to the hydrant directly north of
the auditorium and a line was carried through the east door of the cell house
directly opposite the passageway between G and H and I and K cells blocks and a
stream directed toward the north end of the building.
By this time, the fire was burning fiercely and the entire roof over I and K
blocks had fallen in.
It was also at this point that some of the prisoners from the outside,
apparently, driven to desperation by the plight of their fellow convicts locked
in the cells of G and H blocks, and whom the guards had failed to release,
wrested the hose from the firemen and attempted to carry it into the ranges
themselves.
However, they were finally persuaded to leave the firemen to proceed
uninterrupted with their work.
During this time, also, another line had been run from the second pumper,
carried to the foot of the cell block, and two small lines attached to a
Siamese, which were carried the entire length of the fifth and sixth ranges,
being turned into the various cells to extinguish the fires in the bedding and
cell furnishings.
At the same time, firemen and guards aided by convicts armed with axes and
sledge hammers, proceeded to knock bars and locks from the cell doors and
remove the dead and dying from their cells, carrying them down the stairs or
lowering them by means of ropes through holes cut in the outer netting to the
floor below, and to the outside.
Following the first alarm at 5:39, fire department officials, seeing the
seriousness of the situation upon their arrival, immediately sent in additional
alarms, the second going in at 5:42, the third at 5:48, and a fourth at 6:03,
the second and third alarms each calling out three engines and one truck
company, and the fourth, four engines and two truck companies, or almost all
the available equipment in the city, a total of thirteen pumpers and five truck
companies.
There were approximately 140 fireman normally responding on the equipment
called into service, although this number was considerably supplemented by
response of members of the off-shift, so that the total number of firemen
working was actually greater than this.
The third pumper to go into action connected to the hydrant on West Spring
Street, directly opposite the penitentiary entrance, the lines being carried
over the roof of the front office and up a ladder to the top of the front
dormitory, as the fire had spread rapidly through the roof structure above G
and H cell blocks, eaten its way over the top of the temporary frame partition
between the dormitory and the cell block and was creeping into the concealed
roof space over the dormitory.
However, the quick and effective action on the part of the department in
cutting holes in this roof and directing streams into the concealed space, as
well as bringing a hose line in through the barred windows of the south wall on
the third range, prevented the fire from spreading into that section.
Lines by this time had also been carried up ladders to the roof from the north
side of the dormitory.
Two additional pumpers connected to the two hydrants directly northeast of the
Cotton Mill and another to the hydrant north of the kitchen.
There was also a pumper operating in Dennison Avenue through a line over the
wall and across the wagon stockade.
Still another machine set up at the next hydrant north, but was not brought
into action.
At the height of the fire there were eight pumpers, mostly of 1000-gallons
capacity, in actual operation, supplying twenty-three streams directed on all
sides of the burning building, and by about 9:00 o’clock, the fire was brought
well under control.
When the first companies arrived on the scene, the fire was raging fiercely
among the wooden concrete forms at the top of incompleted cell blocks I and K,
which had not yet been poured and in the debris of the roof which had already
fallen in on this section.
The intense heat and smoke from this section had also been driven, aided by a
fair breeze from the north, under the concrete roof slab above G and H cell
blocks, the heat being of sufficient intensity to ignite the bedding, chairs,
etc., in the sixth range and to burn and suffocate the inmates, and the
heaviest casualties occurred in this range.
The heat and smoke that invaded the fifth range, while severe, was less than in
the tier above, so that a higher percentage of the men in this range survived.
A few, but not many, casualties occurred
in the ranges below, principally from suffocation.
While the main fire was at its height, outside of the first difficulty
experienced by the firemen in having their hose taken away, and while the
bodies were being removed, many of the convicts assisted and there was no
trouble.
However, some later on became unruly, menaced the firemen, and cut the hose
from the pumper north of the kitchen.
Axes and minor equipment were broken or
stolen, rocks were thrown at the apparatus, and one group of convicts attempted
to set fire to the large gasoline tank supply wagon of the department by
igniting piles of blankets which had been placed under the truck.
The driver, although warned by the convicts not to do so, jumped on the truck
and removed it from the grounds.
