WFSB Channel 3Hartford Hospital fire remembered

Hartford Hospital fire remembered

The fire started at about 2:30 in the afternoon of Dec. 8, 1961 on the ninth floor of the south wing of the hospital. It was higher than the ladders on fire trucks at the time.

Channel 3 WTIC TV at the time had dramatic footage of the event, shot by a photographer who managed to climb to the ninth floor, even as rescue operations were underway. Reporter Dick O'Brien did too.

The blaze was blamed on a smoldering cigarette in a trash chute that blew out the door and created what investigators called a wall of flame.

Bob Maher found himself behind a fire door, blinded by the smoke, but heard the cries for help from someone on the other side.

"I opened the door some more and attempted to go around the corner and go out and get her, but when I did that, I felt the flames rush by the left side of my face," he said.

What Art Bouchard remembers most vividly of the day is the smoke.

"It was like being in a black and white movie, but there was no white, everything was gray and black and shades of gray, but it was an evil gray," he said. 

Nurse manager Patricia Rinaldi ran to the hospital when she heard of the fire.

"When I got to the front of the hospital, there was a nurse screaming out of the treatment room window," she said. "It was a terrible feeling not knowing if the firemen would get there in time to save the people that were in that room since the ladder only went to the eighth floor. I could see that the ladder wasn't reaching."

Everyone noted at the time, and even now, that the selfless bravery of so many on the scene, but especially the police and firemen who risked their lives trying to save others.

As for staff members, another memory is the hard work of moving patients to safety.

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