Another one of those things you'd want to forget if you'd been on the scene. In the early-morning hours of January 7, 1950, a fire broke out on the first floor of St. Elizabeth's psychopathic ward of Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa. The dumb waiter served as a convenient way to spread the flames in a hurry. Forty-one women died in the fire, 39 on the scene, with two dying later of their injuries. One of the dead was a nurse's aide who had re-entered the building to help others escape. The others were patients. As TIME wrote, they were "insane or suffering the gentle irrationality of senility."
A few days later, a young patient admitted setting the fire.
A few days later, a young patient admitted setting the fire.