Pittsburgh, PA Home For Aged Disastrous Fire, July 1931

30 DEAD, 20 MISSING MANY HURT IN PITTSBURGH FIRE.

FEARED SHOCK WILL COST LIVES OF SURVIVORS IN HOME FOR THE AGED.

Six of Missing Are Volunteer Rescue Workers -- 80 Year Old Survivor Tells of Dropping to Knees and "Praying to God" -- 250 Inmates in Building When Fire States -- Heroism of Mother Superior Praised -- Most of the Inmates All But Helpless Before the Fire -- Origin of Flames Undetermined.

Pittsburgh, July 24 -- (AP) -- Thirty persons were known to be dead, twenty were missing and more than 100 were in hospitals after a fire had destroyed the home for the aged of the Little Sisters of the Poor here tonight.
Most of the dead were aged and infirm inmates of the home which was located at the corner of South Aiken and Penn avenues, in the East End district.
The fire which apparently started in the lower part of the building near the institution's morgue, was first sighted by a nearby resident who turned in the alarm. Six alarms were sounded in rapid succession as the seriousness of the situation was discerned, and firemen and police were called from all parts of the city.
250 Inmates In Home At Time.
In the home at the time the fire started were 250 inmates, about evenly divided between men and women.
The flames quickly spread through the home and many aged persons could be steen standing at windows screaming for help. Nuns and Brothers of a religious order aided the firemen in the work of rescue. After a four hour fight the fire was brought under control and rescue parties entered the smouldering ruins in a search for further bodies.
The Mother Superior of the Institution was among those most active in assisting the elderly men and women from the building. After the fire had spread so that it was dangerous for anyone to enter, she had to be forcibly detained from further attempts at rescue.
Six of the missing were volunteer rescue workers who entered the building in search of bodies.
30,000 Persons View Flames.
Police battled an estimated crowd of 30,000 persons who gathered as the flames lighted up the skies.
Most of the inmates of the home were all but helpless before the fire. All were old and most of them suffering from infirmities.
Seven women were trapped in a third floor room among them a MRS. MARY KLINE, 80, who is blind.
"I just got down on my knees and prayed to God," she said, "and then I was rescued."
Despite the care given those rescued from the home, DR. W. HOARD EVANS said he believed that the shock of the tragedy would be fatal to many because of their extreme age. All those in the home were more than 60 years old.
Dead Not Identified Hours After Fire.
Hours after the fire the dead could not be identified except in a few cases.
In the Penn avenue and South Aiken avenue courts of the burning building, scores of volunteers massed on a stout fire escape and passed inmates from hand to hand until they were brought to the ground.
Without the assistance of the many volunteers most of them young men from the nearby balloon field district of the city, firemen would have been unable to cope with the situation. Scores of neighbors who hurried to the home as the first cry of "fire" was heard said they were unable to enter the grounds because heavy iron gates to the sidewalk and drive way were closed.
Many of the volunteer rescuers scaled the high stone walls about the institution and firemen arriving a few minutes later battered down the gates to get equipment inside.
In some instances ladders placed against the walls of the building were burned away before firemen could mount them. Then the life nets were brought out and many of the aged occupants whom firemen could not reach jumped to safety.
All Records Of Home Saved.
Fire department officials said that all records containing the names of the home's residents had been saved and with the air of these records they started a final check on the dead and missing.
The cause of the fire has not been determined. From the first floor where it apparently started, it spread rapidly to other sections of the home.
Oxygen was administered on the lawn to many of the victims and beside them reposed hly images salvaged by the faithful on occasion at the risk of their lives. MRS. MARGARET CONNELL, 75, one of the many who tried to aid feeble and ill fellow-inmates to safety told how women battled againse suffocation and heat.
Aged Woman Describes Holocaust.
"We were almost suffocating," MRS. CONNELL said. "The women had to run from window to window for air. Sister PASCALINO in charge of the floor made them stick their heards out and breathe before going on. There were no lights and the heat on the floor was intense. I felt too wrak to go on. I sand back on a bed and a fireman carried me out."
Sister PASCALINO remained at her post directing rescue efforts and refused to leave until the floor was cleared.
One body was taken from the ruins appeared to be that of a nun. It was clad in block clothes not unlike that of a habit. A number of other sisters collapsed while bringing inmates from the doomed structure.
A score or more of priests from various parts of the city risted their lives in the flaming home to administer last rites to the dying.

The Morning Herald Uniontown Pennsylvania 1931-07-25

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DEATH TOLL IN PITTSBURGH HOME FOR AGED HOLOCAUSTA REACHES 37

11 INMATES STILL MISSING; 14 BODIES UNIDENTIFIED.

DOCTORS FIGHTING TO PREVENT PNEUMONIA FROM CLAIMING VICTIMS AMONG SURVIVORS.

CAUSE STILL UNKNOWN.

Pittsburgh, July 26 -- (AP) -- A stern fight began today to prevent pneumonia from taking toll of the lives of many of those rescued from fire that destroyed the home for the aged of the Little Sisters of the Poor, here Friday night and early Saturday.
The number of lives lost in the blaze, meanwhile, mounted to 39 over the weekend with the deaths in hospitals of MRS. MARY FILEY, 76; MRS. THERESA RISINGER, 81; and BRIDGET SHEA, 72.
Fear that shock and exposure whould exact their price was expressed even as the more than 200 victims were being borne into four hospitals in the neighborhood of the home as the fire still raged. Today, that toll believed taken, doctors and nurses of the hour hospitals toiled over more than 150 old and infirm men and women to help them rebuild their waning strength to offset the ravages of disease.
Police too were busy. No trace has been found of 11 persons listed in salvaged records of the home as having been in the institution at the time of the fire. No bodies were found in the ruins and the only supposition was that the 11 were being cared for in private homes somewhere in the city but where and what care was being given was unknown.
The number of unidentified dead dropped to 14 meanwhile, with the identification of MRS. MARY E. HITE, 67, bay a nephew NICHOLAS E. LYNAN, Altoona, Pa.
What caused the fatal blaze still was not definitely determined. Fire department officials believed, however, that spontaneous combustion in a mop that had been used in waxing and polishing floors appears the most likely explanation.
Plans for rebuilding the institution remained indefinite pending conferences of Catholic leaders of the Pittsburgh Diocese. Funds already have begun to pour in to the nuns who operated the home, nevertheless.

The Morning Herald Uniontown Pennsylvania 1931-07-27

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PITTSBURGH FIRE TOLL TOTALS 42

Two Inmates of Home for Aged Still Unaccounted for; to Rebuild Institution.

Pittsburgh, July 27 -- (AP) -- The death toll reached 42 tonight with two persons still unaccounted for in the disastrous fire at the Home for the Ged of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Friday night. Six bodies were unidentified.
A further check of the ruins of the institution was made today by Coroner W. J. McGREGOR who announced that there were no more bodies among the debris and ashes. Police and fire department officials and attaches of the Home were at a loss to account for the two missing persons.
Bishop U. C. BOYLE of the Pittsburgh Diocese of the Roman Catholic church, who returned from a vacation as soon as he heard of the fire, visited the home today. He later made known that a modern fire-proof structure would be erected in place of the institution destroyed.
Mother Provincial AUGUSTINE of Baltimore, head of the province of the Little Sisters of the Poor in which Pittsburgh is included, conferred here on relief plans.
Several investigations into the fire were being continued.

The Morning Herald Union Pennsylvania 1931-07-28
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!