Cleveland, OH Deaconness Hospital Fire Kills Four, Feb 1895

BURNED AT HER POST OF DUTY

A NURSE IN A CLEVELAND HOSPITAL WOULD NOT LEAVE HER PATIENT -- THREE OTHER LIVES LOST.

Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 1 -- Four lives were lost in a fire which almost destroyed the Deaconness's Hospital, at 163 Jennings Avenue, shortly before noon to-day. The dead are:
ALLMEYER, JOHN, fifty-nine years old; burned.
BAUMER, MINNIE, nurse, twenty-five years old; burned.
KRAUSE, JACOB, sixty-five years old; burned.
WALTER, CLARK, six months old; suffocated.

Several other patients were injured, but none seriously.

ROSE GERBER, one of the laundry girls, discovered flames in the basement of the hospital. There were few people in the neighborhood at the time. The first arrivals heard screams and saw flames coming from every window on the second and third floors.
Suddenly a woman's face appeared at one of the windows, and she was seen to smash the heavy glass with her fist. Then she leaped out.

The Fire Department was slow in reaching the hospital, the snow and ice in the streets preventing a quick run, but when once at work the fire was quickly subdued.

There are only two exits from the upper part of the building, one in the front and one in the rear. The nurses got out safely, almost at the start, with the exception of MINNIE BAUMER. When her sister nurses called to her that the building was on fire she cried:
"No; I will not leave my patient -- I will die first."

She was nursing KRAUSE, who was also burned to death. She sat by the side of the sick man until death came to both of them.

The injured were taken to the other hospitals of the city.

The Deaconness's Hospital is under the direction of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has done much philanthropic work. It was opened last October, and was nearly filled with patients. The front part of the building is destroyed.

The New York Times New York 1895-02-02
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!