Golden Age Nursing Home fire

The Golden Age Nursing Home fire took place soon after 4:45 am on November 23, 1963, a mile north of Fitchville, Ohio, United States, killing 63 residents.

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.

The blaze began so quickly that an attempt to call the local fire department proved fruitless when the facility's telephone wires were burned.

[2] A truck driver, Henry Dahman, was passing through the rural area between Cleveland and Toledo when he saw sparks on the north end of the roof coming from arcing electric wires that had sagged through the pine trees in the front lawn.

A female attendant noticed the fire shortly before 5 a.m.: upon seeing a flash of light through the main entrance doors and thinking at first it might have been a car's headlights, she looked out of the window and saw flames at the corner eaves of the lobby section.

Due to the large number of lives lost, Ohio Governor James A Rhodes directed that the investigation be more intensive than usual, and for it to be headed by State Fire Marshal Fred Rice.

[1] The event was recounted in a three-page story entitled "Golden Years" by cartoonist Sharon Rudahl in Corporate Crime Comics #1, published by Kitchen Sink Press in 1977.