On February 12, 1941, a large fire destroyed the dairy barn at Danvers State Hospital, killing half a dozen cows and a bull and resulting in between $50,000 and $75,000 in damage.
The fire was first spotted by two brothers, Robert and Raymond Prentiss, who were driving by the hospital, saw the flames, and rushed to the scene to rescue the animals in the barn.
Alarms were then sounded on the hospital grounds, prompting hospital workers to flock to the barn to rescue the animals.
One of the hospital workers, Ben Boothby, rescued four horses before returning to the barn to save some cows. Two doctors, William C. Inman and Dr. Melvin Goodman, who both lived near the hospital, raced to the scene to assist in rescuing the animals, according to a news report in the Boston Post.
Some of the patients who were permitted to work on the farm also helped rescue the animals.
The flames reached so high that they were visible as far as Salem, Lawrence, and Lynn. The fire even caused a traffic jam on the nearby Newburyport Turnpike after nearly 10,000 people flocked to Danvers to watch the scene unfold, according to a news report in the Boston Globe.
Fire departments from Salem and Beverly were called in to help fight the blaze while the Peabody Fire Department was called in to fill in at the empty Danvers stations.
Tractors, automobiles, around 225 cows, and some bulls were removed from the barn as the firemen battled the blaze.
The freed animals later had to be rounded up so they could be housed in other barns or structures for the night.
Around 2,300 inmates at Danvers State Hospital watched the fire from the main hospital building about 300 yards away. Many of them were moved to rooms where they couldn’t see the fire.
Fortunately, favoring winds kept the flames away from the main hospital buildings, but a three-story brick dormitory building burned down, as did the trunk lines, which left the hospital without telephone service.
The cause of the fire was not known. Superintendent Dr. Clarence Bonner launched an investigation into the cause, which was at first believed might have been caused by a lit cigarette, but investigators also questioned the patients working there to determine whether it was arson.
The barn fire wasn’t the only fire to occur in the hospital’s long history.
In 1900, a fire broke out in the laundry room at the hospital and caused $7,000 in damages. In 1901, another fire broke out in the laundry room and caused $10,000 in damages.
In 1912, a fire broke out in the men’s ward during the early morning hours. Many of the inmates smashed the nearby windows and tried to jump out, but the hospital staff stopped them and escorted them safely out of the building.
In 1931, a fire broke out in one of the hospital’s industrial shops after someone left an electric iron unattended.
In 1936, a visitor to the hospital gave a match to one of the female patients, who then lit her hair on fire and also set fire to the mattress in her room.
Then in 1939, a fire broke out in the kitchen after a grease-covered flue ignited. In 1943, a small fire occurred in the wall of one of the hospital wards, and in 1953, a fire broke out in the basement of the hospital due to the careless disposal of a lit cigarette.
Sources:
“$75,000 Fire at Hospital Investigated.” The Boston American, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 12.
“$75,000 Fire Near Hospital Patients Aid.” The Boston Record, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 3.
“Danvers Fire Damage $60,000.” The Boston Transcript, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 1.
“Hospital Fire Without Panic.” The Windsor Daily Star, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 18.
“2300 Inmates Watch Daring Rescue of Cows in $50,000 Fire at Danvers.” The Boston Post, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 1.
“State’s Largest Barn Razed by Flames.” The Boston Record, 13 Feb. 1941, p. 20.
“Praised for Work in Hospital Fire.” The Boston Transcript, 14 Feb. 1941, p. 14.