The 2+1⁄2-story facility, located sixty miles west of St. Louis, housed 155 elderly people and had been converted just two years earlier, after having previously served as the site of Central Wesleyan College.
The blaze began at approximately 2:40 p.m. reportedly in a first floor annex linen closet during a Sunday afternoon religious service.
[1] On the first floor of the main building, Lutheran minister Walter Schwane was leading a hymn, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," when a scream was heard from one of the visitors who had noticed smoke near the room of her uncles.
[2] In the aftermath of the tragedy, it was determined that a number of factors served as potential causes, including wood in the building that was more than 50 years old, coupled with thermostats often kept at 85–90 °F (29–32 °C) to keep residents comfortable during the frigid winter months.
The end result of those omissions came when Missouri Governor James T. Blair signed a bill in March 1957 that established minimum safety standards for nursing homes in the state.