The Cleveland Clinic Fire of 1929 Traditional Cache

The original home of the Cleveland Clinic was not a hospital with beds, but a clinic with four stories of doctor's offices surrounding a small central atrium. It is an unassuming 'fire proof' brick building on the south side of Euclid Avenue at East 93rd Street. Although it is almost lost in the expansive urban landscape, it is the site of one of Cleveland’s worst disasters with the final casualties at 123 dead including one of the Cleveland Clinic founders Dr. John Phillips, and 92 injured. It ranks third among Cleveland’s Worst Disasters behind the "Collinwood School Fire" and the "East Ohio Gas Explosion". The disaster was triggered when x-ray film came too close to a light bulb.

Nitro-cellulose is a highly flammable compound, also known as guncotton. From the late 1880‘s to early 1930‘s, Kodak and other film suppliers plasticized it and used it for photographic, motion picture and x-ray film. Nitro-cellulose is not only unstable, ferociously flammable and explosive, but also emits a poisonous gas when burned; and can also burn underwater. Its dangers were widely known at the time. Ironically, an alternative “safety” film composed of cellulose acetate with similar photogenic properties and no more flammable than cardboard was available and used in other hospitals for several years.

Instead of the nitro-cellulose x-ray film being stored in a vault, protected by automatic sprinklers and provided with a vent to carry off fumes in case of fire as was widely recommended at the time by the National Fire Protection Agency, the x-ray films at the Cleveland Clinic were stored in the basement in an old coal bin. There were no sprinkler systems and there was exposure to several potential ignition sources including steam pipes, light bulbs, and evidence of matches and smoking. There was also a direct opening to a pipe tunnel and shafts that furnished a natural path of travel for the fumes to every room in the hospital.

On Wednesday, May 15, 1929 at approximately 11:30 a.m. the first of two explosions occurred at the Cleveland Clinic building. The explosion was caused by a fire in the basement of the Cleveland Clinic when decomposing nitro-cellulose x-ray film was left unattended and too close to the heat source of a 100 watt incandescent light bulb. Three tons of x-ray films caught fire releasing a deadly brown-yellowish poisonous gas. The gas filled the waiting rooms of the floors above.

The gas acted similar to the nerve gases used in World War I. Victims breathed the gas and collapsed immediately, with their faces turning a yellowish-brown within minutes after death. There were 225 people in the clinic at the time of the fire. Most were in numerous examining rooms off the central court. Initial fumes caught nurses, doctors, patients and staff unaware and they collapsed in stride, at their desks or where they stood. Others managed to struggle to a window, door or stairway, clutching their throats before their lives were snuffed out. Later, staff members would be found slumped over desks with writings stopped in mid-sentence. Patients would be found on examing tables, sitting in waiting room chairs and in wheelchairs.

In the center of the building and extending up through the three floors was a large open light well about 32’ x 40’ with a skylight. The hollow center of the building soon filled with gases. The intense heat below sent the fumes swirling upward. Before any one had an opportunity to escape a second blast blew out the skylight. By blowing out the skylight, the second explosion helped to vent the building but not before it forced the deadly nitrous peroxide gas to fill every corner of the clinic choking off stairwells, elevators and escape routes and increasing fatalities.

The only chance for survival was to get to a window, but many were unable to and succumbed to the deadly gas. Many pounded weakly on unbroken windows before dropping out of sight. One woman did manage to get to a window and an open balcony and was prepared to jump into a Firefighters' net below only to collapse backwards into the building. For those that did manage to escape the building, they were shuttled to other area hospitals by taxis for oxygen treatments. However many of the initial 'survivors' died several hours or days later as the effects of the gas on their lungs took their toll. All the deaths would later be attributed to the inhalation of the poisonous gas---none to the actual fire.

Initially firefighters arriving at the scene where hampered because as previously mentioned, not only does nitro-cellulose burn underwater, but adding water would also cause more smoke and more poisonous gas. With no gas masks or breathing apparatuses as standard equipment at the time, rescue workers were prevented from entering the building, so they battered windows, and punched holes in the roof to reach those inside and help vent the building of the noxious gas.

Although there were no shortage of acts of heroism that day, there is one hero in particular that should be remembered, thirty year old Policeman Ernest Staab. Policeman Ernest Staab sacrificed his life to achieve the removal of 21 persons from the blazing gas filled building. He arrived while the fumes still clogged the entrance but time after time pushed his way into the darkened halls, facing almost certain death. Some of those he removed survived, some died as he carried them to open air. But he worked away as the fatal gas slowly destroyed his lungs. Policeman Straab collapsed after carrying out his twenty-first burden. He followed those he rescued to an emergency cot and died a few hours later.

The aftermath of the Cleveland Clinic Fire of 1929 brought about many changes in fire safety. Gas masks became standard issue among fire departments in Cleveland, and the city established a municipal ambulance service. The fire also helped establish strict standards for the storage and labeling of hazardous materials and fire insurance companies began to revise and strictly enforce regulations regarding their storage. The Cleveland Clinic was obsolved of any responsibility in the fire and the $3 million dollars in lawsuits were dismissed. The clinic did pay $45,000 in out of court settlements.