Burning of the Sanitarium Buildings.
In order that the readers of the REVIEW may have the exact facts with reference to the destruction of the Sanitarium buildings, and not be left to depend upon newspaper reports or unreliable rumors, we have prepared the following statement for this paper. The precise origin of the fire is not known. A few minutes before four o'clock on Tuesday morning, February 18, the night watchman, while on his round of inspection in the main building, found that some of the electric call bells would not ring, owing to a “short circuit,” which had in some way been set up between the electric wires in the basement of the building. While attending to this, the odor of smoke was detected, coming from beneath the men's bath room. Summoning assistance from the night clerk's office, a hurried investigation was made, and a fire was found to have started in the basement at a point underneath the massage room. This was in a large wing of the main building, extending eastward. A dense smoke was rising, and the alarm was immediately given from two alarm boxes in the main building, and from the nearest city box, and help summoned from a fire station located close by. But the fire was in a place not easy to get at with the hose, and spread rapidly, running upward through some ventilating shafts, and breaking out in a few moments' time at the top of the building. By this time doctors, nurses, and other employees and medical students in the building had been aroused, and the energies of all were turned to the task of removing the patients to a place of safety. The nurses had been instructed and drilled in preparation for such an emergency, and the result was shown in the remarkable work that followed. The building was filled with patients, of whom fifty or more were in a helpless condition, unable to rise from their beds. These and the women and children were taken care of first. Not a room upon any floor was left unentered. Not one patient was forgotten. All were gotten out of their rooms, and carried or led to a position of safety, many climbing down the fire escapes, with which the building was well provided. All escaped from the building with the single exception of one aged man, a mental patient, who, after he had left his room in company with his wife, either became separated from the rest by accident, or turned back again for some cause after he had reached a place of comparative safety. To make sure that no one was left, the search was maintained by doctors and nurses after the smoke had become so dense that only by wrapping wet cloths about their heads and feeling their way, were they able to pass through the halls. Predictions had been made, based on what has occurred in other places, that the burning of the Sanitarium building, if it should occur, would be attended with great loss of life; and the time at which the disaster happened was one which favored the verification of such a fear. But the prompt action taken by the employees, one and all, and the entire absence of panic brought about a result as gratifying as it was remarkable. In all this we recognize with the deepest gratitude the merciful care and overruling providence of Him in whose name this institution was established, and to the furtherance of whose cause it is devoted. To Him be the glory and the praise for this great deliverance. But little could be done by the city fire department to stay the progress of the flames, owing to the lack of facilities adequate to cope with a fire of such magnitude. Situated, as the building was, upon almost the highest ground in the city, where the pressure of the city water was much reduced, and with only one fire engine at hand until help could be summoned from neighboring towns, great difficulty was experienced in getting water directly on the fire in the high buildings. The hospital building was separated from the main building by the width of the street, but took fire from the intense heat when the fire in the main building was at its height. The loss of this building was owing principally to the lack of sufficient water pressure to throw a stream to its top story, where the flames began. Other buildings in close proximity to the main building took fire and were consumed, among these being the old wooden building in which the Sanitarium was first started, when it was known as the “Health Reform Institute;” also the Salisbury cottage, at the corner of Lincoln and Barbour Streets. The dormitory escaped, and to this, and the college buildings, of which the Sanitarium recently acquired possession, a large number of the patients were immediately transferred, others finding refuge in hotels. The Sanitarium institution was, of course, not burned. Patients received treatment the very day of the fire, and the work of the institution has been going steadily forward since. A large number of patients showed their loyalty to the institution by going with it to its new quarters. The loss on the buildings burned was about $300,000. This loss is a little more than half covered by insurance. The citizens of Battle Creek were not slow in testifying their appreciation of the value of the institution to the city and the loss sustained by the community. By proclamation of the mayor, a mass meeting of citizens was called to meet in the Tabernacle, Wednesday evening, to express their sympathy with those directly concerned in the misfortune, and tender their moral support to whatever measures may be taken for the re-establishment of the institution upon a prosperous footing. At the hour appointed the Tabernacle was filled to its fullest capacity. Prominent business men of the city, together with the pastors of the principal churches, occupied the rostrum, and nearly all of them addressed the meeting, speaking in the warmest terms of the institution, its management and employees, and the principles for which it stands, and more than once giving the assurance that whatever financial assistance is needed to rebuild, can be had for the asking. The sentiment of the meeting was embodied in the following resolution, which was presented:— “Whereas, The Michigan Sanitarium and Benevolent Association have sustained a deplorable loss in the destruction of their magnificent Sanitarium and hospital buildings by fire, we, the citizens of Battle Creek, in mass meeting assembled, desiring to express our heartfelt sympathy with its capable board of managers, and with Dr. J. H. Kellogg, the exceedingly skillful surgeon and physician-in-chief, under whose untiring care during the past thirty-five years it has attained a world-wide reputation of the very highest character, and a degree of prosperity exceeded by none, do hereby— Resolve, That during its entire existence its influence has been for the most substantial material interests of our city, that its beneficial influences as affecting the moral, intellectual, and physical culture of our people, both young and old, have been of inestimable value; and we hereby express the ardent hope that the ruins will soon be supplanted by buildings equal, if not superior, to those consumed by the fire, and pledge the sympathy and moral support of this meeting in any measures leading to the accomplishment of that most desirable end.” Dr. Kellogg was present, and addressed the meeting, stating that from lack of funds when the Sanitarium building was first put up, and the desire to accommodate as many patients as possible, wood had been used in the old building instead of fire-proof material; but he felt that he could not ask people to come to another building that was not fire-proof, or so nearly so as to be entirely safe; and that to erect a building of this nature, $100,000 would be required above the amount of the insurance. A resolution has been passed by the board of managers stating that if God will provide the funds, a new building of this character will be erected. From all parts of the country, hundreds of telegrams have come in from business men and others, expressing sympathy, and offering financial aid. Through the gloom of misfortune there shines the prospect for a better equipment and a greater prosperity for the Battle Creek Sanitarium than it has ever known in the past.