Poland A fire in a psychiatric hospital in Górna Grupa 55 patients burned down
I accidentally encountered information about this terrible tragedy, I do not know the previous history, even though it happened in Poland.
Today I listened to songs on the net, I know one of them very well because it was sung in the sensational film "The Last Bell". The song "And we don't want to run away from here" has always reminded me of this film until today. I decided to check on the Internet who wrote it, I was convinced that the song is against communism. Text by Jacek Kaczmarski, music by Przemysław Gintrowski. My surprise was when I read that this song creates after a fire of psychiatric hospitals in Górna Grupa. I started looking for articles about this tragedy and really what I read, it's hard to believe that it really happened.
On July 15, 52, the order in Górna Grupa was liquidated, in a village located on the road from Toruń to Gdańsk. In its place a psychiatric hospital was quickly built.
The hospital took a lot of patients, it was crowded, the beds stood side by side. 400 places (320 in pavilion XVIII, and 80 - in pavilion XIX) Rooms without cupboards because of lack of space, clothes were lying next to the beds. Ground floor and first floor reserved for administration. Walled personnel lived in the side wing. Savings on insomnia and delusional drugs, patients were connected to 110 volts electroconvulsive therapy followed by epilepsy.
Tragedy day
October 31, 1980 promised to be like every day.
Morning
For breakfast, a milk trowel with bread, unlimited marmalade. After breakfast, depending on the state of health, some went to work to farms, worked more than once for a pack of cigarettes. Poor patients went to common rooms where they spent time at various games.
Afternoon and evening
Lunch, the sick were divided into groups, the efficient went to the canteen, and the less able were brought to beds. Tomatoes were probably served that day. Because of the frost after dinner, no one went for a walk only to the common room. Four nurses, two Grażyna, Bożena and Teresa are on duty. They look after 125 most seriously ill patients on the third floor. A quiet evening
Late evening
Most patients are asleep and no one expects drama to take place soon. The patient they called Ali was a fire lover, at one point he started shouting that he was on fire. Nobody, however, took his words seriously. To the nurse Gertruda, who lived in the residential part, came the nurse Okonowa who worked on the second floor saying that there was smoke everywhere.
Smoker Rutkowski who lived in the residential area and bordered the wall with the sick room ran for a pickaxe to smash the wall because he heard loud moans. Nurse Bożena noticed the smoke, ran to the sick room, but because the door handle was too hot, she did not open them, she heard screams and moans of burning people.
After some time, smoke and fire was visible outside, first a volunteer fire brigade arrived, people from the villages began to come to the rescue, and then state services. Fire controlled the attic in the sick and the third floor. Dozens of patients from the third floor get out into the corridor and run into the courtyard chaos reigns.
Nurse Ewa, who was on duty on the first floor, heard screams, the first thought that the sick attacked the staff. When she opened the door she noticed a fire and a burning man.
The fire brigade draws water from the pond from the park by the hospital, but it ends quickly, waiting for water barrels. According to the witness, most firefighters were drunk, some of whom could not stand on their feet.
Midnig
Lack of water. The fire envelops the roof inside, patients cut off from the escape route. The glow from the fire attracts onlookers. Among them, patients who managed to save. Shouts come from the building, patients who were tied to their beds overnight, or fire cut off their escape route were burning alive.
At some point, the roof with the roof collapses.
Finally, when the water reaches and the firemen put out the fire, they can enter the building. In the first room they see 26 charred bodies, they were under the door, on the beds. Everyone in bent positions, the beds bent hot.
But the corpse balance was terrifying.
A fire killed 55 patients.
Picture taken a few days after the fire
Suspect in arson was patient Ali, due to lack of evidence he was acquitted.
The deputy director of the hospital for economic and financial affairs and the head of the administrative and economic department were accused of neglecting fire protection.
By amnesty 84r, both were acquitted.
The cause of the fire was found to be a leaking flue.
The act is now closed. There are no guilty parties.
Forty-six were buried in a mass grave at the hospital cemetery in Świecie. Initially without names, five years later the names were added.
Now I know that the song by Jacek Kaczmarski and Przemysław Gintrowski - And we don't want to run away from here, was written for 55 victims and injured in this biggest hospital disaster.
Our big house was on fire
The smoke in the corridors turns the cords
It's a deep, really black night
Rats escape from the burning basements
I don't know why, there was no movie about this event. Although so many years have passed ...
This is the reason people from the psychiatric drama were not important people and did not deserve.
Sad :(
Thank you for reading the errors. Excuse me :)
Greetings !!! :)
Help for the article
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po%C5%BCar_w_szpitalu_psychiatrycznym_w_G%C3%B3rnej_Grupie
http://www.kaczmarski.art.pl/tworczosc/wiersze/a-my-nie-chcemy-uciekac-stad/na-rusztach-lozek/
http://wmrokuhistorii.blogspot.com/2016/01/pacjenci-w-plomieniach.html