Chicago State Hospital for the Insane, Dunning Illinois 1923
For more than a decade prior to the fire at Dunning Asylum it had been considered a fire trap, known locally as the Death House. The frame structure was overcrowded and had been plagued with at least eight smaller fires since 1910, none of which had caused serious injury. There were approximately 600 patients housed in the facilities for conditions which ranged from the criminally insane to those suffering from epilepsy. Several World War I veterans were in the facility for treatment of what was then called shell shock and other war related mental disorders. Veterans in the facility were there after being taken by the Chicago police rather than prosecuting them for vagrancy.
There had been fires at the Dunning complex before the 1923 fire, including a fire which destroyed the infirmary in 1912. During that fire problems were encountered by firefighters, including inadequate water supply and pressure to fight the fire, and difficulty maneuvering fire equipment within the grounds of the facility. None of these problems had been adequately addressed following their detection and the facility had merely become more overcrowded.
On December 26 1923 most of the 600 residents of the building were at dinner when the fire was discovered, now believed to have originated in a storage closet where numerous solvents and rags were stored. Attendants tried to maintain order and evacuate the resident’s to another building on the grounds, but panic ensued and many residents attempted to return to the burning building, or to flee the grounds entirely. Several residents and attendants were overcome by smoke as they attempted to exit the burning building.
At least one escaped patient was picked up by police in Chicago following the fire. Federal and state agencies, including the United States Veterans Bureau, dispatched representatives to the facility to help identify the dead and determine the cause of the fire. The building was completely destroyed by the blaze and 18 residents and attendants lost their lives. State officials listed 30 patients deemed to be dangerous as probably escaped from the asylum as a result of the fire, pending identifying all of the bodies found in the remains of the building.
Little changes were made to the facilities or to the administration of the Chicago State Hospital as a result of the fire and its aftermath. In 1947 conditions at the hospital were so overcrowded that many patients were required to sleep on mattresses on the floor in corridors, with nothing separating them from other patients but air.