FIRE CLAIMS 33 LIVES IN NURSING HOME BLAZE

25 PATIENTS OF 57 ESCAPE PREDAWN FIRE

Largo, Fla., March 29 (AP) -- Thirty-three persons -- a heroic nurse and 32 elderly patients -- perished today in a predawn blaze that raced through a private nursing home.
Many of the patients were so senile that, childlike, they refused to leave their warm beds. Their charred, unidentifiable bodies remained in the twisted frames of their beds for eight hours.
Of the 57 at the Littlefield Nursing Home, only 25 escaped. Ages of the patients ranged from 55 to 94.
All but three of the victims were women -- mental cases, many too old for admission to the state hospital. Others were old age pensioners and other elderly persons who needed special attention.
Most of the dead were from Florida but there were some from outside the state. Officials tried to learn the addresses of the dead.
Burned Mass.
All that was left of the 185-foot long white one-story frame structure was a mass of smoke-black metal -- bedsteads, kitchenware, bedpans, wheelchairs. Flame-shriveled grapefruit hung from the branches of trees in the pretty little grove that surrounded the home.
The home is located three miles outside Largo, a tourist and farming center about 15 miles north of St. Petersburg just off the Gulf of Mexico coast.
The home had been in operation for about 10 years. The main building housed women patients and a few men. That is where all the deaths occurred. Connected by a passageway was a small men's dormitory where 13 slept. All escaped. Also nearby was a small cottage housing other patients.
Heroic Nurse.
The heroic nurse was tall, black-haired MRS. GERTRUDE WARNICK, 55. She rescued one patient, ran in for another and was never seen alive after that.
Men futilely used small fire extinguishers on the raging flames. Nurses and officials of the home aroused sleeping inmates and tried valiantly to carry ill persons from the building.
Another man was killed in an automobile collision, while driving one of the patients to a hospital. ANGUS SMITH, Pinellas County welfare director, was the victim in the crash.
What started the fire is not known, but several agencies already have begun investigations. Fire Chief PETER TREOLA of Clearwater said the cause of the sudden blaze, starting about 3:15 a. m., might never be learned.
Complete Probe.
But Pinellas County Sheriff SID SAUNDERS said a "complete investigation" will be made and "prosecution will be made if eveidence warrants it."
The state fire marshal's office and the state hotel commission, which has authority to inspect safe-homes, also launched probes.
W. L. LITTLEFIELD, operator of the home for 23 years, suffered shock from the blaze and was placed under care of a physician. He said efforts of rescuers were hampered by the lights failing. The fire burned through electric lines leading into the home.
The scene of the disaster was grim. Weeping relatives were going from cluster to cluster of persons asking if their loved ones had been saved. An occasional can of food in the ashes of the home exploded, startling the crowd.
Inside the roped off ashes ghastly remains of patients lay upon what were their beds. DR. JIM NORTON, assistant county medical officer, combed through the ruins trying to locate all bodies. An assistant placed a tag on each bit of remains.
NORTON said he had located what he believed were 32 bodies. However, county officials said they believed only 29 were trapped in the fire. It probably will not be known until late afternoon how many did die.
The fire started in an area of the kitchen and supply room. It spread through the main dormitory for woman -- where all the deaths occurred -- then leaped to a smaller building where 13 men were staying.
Tales of bravery were numerous.
One of the heroines was MRS. GERTRUDE WARNICK. She was a nurse who pulled out one person and went back for another. No one ever saw her after that.
Apparently first word of the fire came from a woman patient.
JOHN F. BEECHER, 57, and a retired Air Corps captain, related, "I heard a scream and I recognized it was a woman's voice. I believed she called for help."
Other inmates related how LITTLEFIELD and his wife ran about the building knocking on window panes and doors telling everyone to leave the building.
Patients also helped rescue their fellows.
WILLIAM HARDIN, 76, told how he pulled out one man who had to use two canes to walk.
HARDIN related how he left the burning men's dormitory and heard a voice saying "WILLIAM, help me. Help me." HARDIN said he took the man to safety.

The Abilene Reporter-News Texas 1953-03-30
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!