Golden Age Nursing Home Fire

The Golden Age Nursing Home Fire took place in the pre-dawn hours of November 23, 1963 near Fitchville, Ohio, USA, killing 63 elderly people. The disaster has largely been forgotten since it came in the immediate aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but has recently been featured in the documentary "Fireland" by Justin Zimmerman.

The blaze began so quickly that an attempt to call the local fire department proved fruitless when the telephone's wires were burned. A call from a truck driver, Henry Dahman, who was passing through the rural area between Cleveland and Toledo at approximately 4 a.m., quickly brought local officials, but strong winds helped to envelop the one-story building in flames. Two other truck drivers also helped bring out residents from the facility.

The building's owner, Robert W. Pollack, indicated that many of the residents could have been saved had they not panicked. "Instead of going out the doors, they went back to their beds," said Pollack.

Three employees and 21 residents survived, but the remains of 22 people not claimed by family members were buried in services attended by 100 people on November 29.

The L-shaped, concrete block, one-story building had passed inspection the previous March. In late 1962, patients that were not considered mentally ill had been transferred there after being removed from the Cleveland State Hospital.

The fire was the United States' deadliest blaze since the December 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School Fire at Chicago's Our Lady of the Angels School that killed 95 people. It also marked the second fire in less than a week involving the elderly, following the November 18 disaster that claimed 25 people at the Surfside Hotel in Atlantic City.