Seacliff Mental Hospital fire
8th of December 1942
Sea Cliff mental hospital fire.
In sea cliff mental hospital Ward 5 contained 39 women patients in a 20-bed dormitory. The fire happened at the same time as world war two and on the night of the fire there were no nurses on duty but every hour a staff member checked ward 5. Around 9.45 pm a male staff member noticed the fire in ward 5 and raised the alarm. Most wards had automatic fire alarms but ward 5 had a button under a glass cabinet.
Only two women out of the 39 were lucky enough to survive the fire because the rooms they were in did not have locked shutters. The fire was to strong and burned the building to ashes within an hour.
The reason the fire happend
No one knows how exactly the fire started but still question why ward 5 had closed shutters.