Ellen White: Woman of Vision

Chapter 27—The Battle Creek Sanitarium Fire

If the telegram that reached Elmshaven Tuesday morning, February 18, 1902, had said that the Review and Herald Publishing House had been destroyed by fire, Ellen White would not have been surprised. Five months earlier she had written to its managers a message that was read to the board: WV 397.1

“I have been almost afraid to open the Review, fearing to see that God has cleansed the publishing house by fire” (Letter 138, 1901; Testimonies for the Church, 8:91]). WV 397.2

But the message that came that rainy morning was that the two main sanitarium buildings in Battle Creek had just burned to the ground. Mrs. White reached for her pen and somewhat in agony noted: WV 397.3

I would at this time speak words of wisdom, but what can I say? We are afflicted with those whose life interests are bound up in this institution. Let us pray that this calamity shall work together for good to those who must feel it very deeply. We can indeed weep with those who weep (Manuscript 76, 1903). WV 397.4

Why was it, she was led to ask, that this institution, which had been such a great means for good, should suffer such loss? As her pen traced the words, page after page, she wrote: WV 397.5

I am instructed to say, Let no one attempt to give a reason for the burning of the institution that we have so highly appreciated. Let no one attempt to say why this calamity was permitted to come. Let everyone examine his own course of action. Let everyone ask himself whether he is meeting the standard that God has placed before him.... Let no one try to explain this mysterious providence. Let us thank God that there was not a great loss of life. In this we see God's merciful hand (Ibid.). WV 397.6

Anxiously the staff at Elmshaven waited for word presenting in detail just what had happened. This in some larger features came in the West Coast newspapers and then in more detail in letters and in the next issue of the Review and Herald. WV 397.7

It was a winter night, with snow quite deep on the ground. The sanitarium had been ever gaining in popularity, and its main buildings were filled to capacity. Its guest list carried names of business and government leaders. Only a skeleton staff was on duty at 4:00 Tuesday morning, February 18, 1902, when fire broke out in the basement of the main sanitarium building, just beneath the treatment rooms. The two main alarms in the building were set off as well as the nearest fire-alarm box in the city. Equipment from Battle Creek and nearby cities hurried to fight the blaze. But spreading through the ventilating and elevator shafts, the flames soon enveloped the building, making it clear that it could not be saved. WV 397.8

The nurses and other staff members swung into their practiced fire-evacuation plan, first taking the 50 patients who were unable to get out of their beds, then assisting women and children to safety. WV 398.1

Ambulatory patients made good use of fire escapes. With the special blessing of God all patients were cleared from the building. This was made certain as physicians and nurses, wet towels about their heads, felt their way through the dense smoke to recheck the rooms and corridors. As the insurance inspector looked over the situation a few days after the fire, he declared: “Nothing but divine power could have assisted those nurses and doctors to do as they did in getting the people out” (DF 45a, S. H. Lane to AGD, February 28, 1902). WV 398.2

But one man did lose his life. It was “old man Case,” an eccentric patient in his late 80s, who, not trusting the banks, always carried his treasure with him in a satchel—”all the way from one to five thousand dollars” (Ibid.). He, his wife, and daughter were led to a place of safety, and then, unnoticed, he must have gone back into the building to retrieve his satchel with its treasure. He never came out. WV 398.3

The fire from the main sanitarium building soon spread across the street to the hospital, a five-story structure. Situated as the building was on a hill, water pressure was insufficient to protect it. So it burned too. WV 398.4

By 7:00 that Tuesday morning it was all over. The principal sanitarium structures were gone. The patients, some 400 in all, had been moved to “the several large buildings which” were “rapidly adapted to the purpose, and the cottages which were not included in the disaster” (Medical Magazine, April 1902, p. 181). Immediately the staff swung into action to provide for the continued care of the patients. The treatment schedule, modified somewhat, continued that day. WV 398.5

Dr. Kellogg was on the train returning from the West Coast to Battle Creek at the time of the fire. He learned of it when he arrived in Chicago on Tuesday evening. As he continued his journey to Battle Creek he called for a table and utilized the two hours in drawing plans for a new sanitarium building. WV 398.6

The moving of Battle Creek College to Berrien Springs four months previous to the fire had left buildings vacant that were available to the sanitarium. The two dormitories, West Hall and South Hall, were soon filled with sanitarium patients. The old Battle Creek College classroom and administration building furnished space for the business offices. East Hall, the sanitarium-owned dormitory occupied by nurses, was able to accommodate 150 of the patients. The nurses moved elsewhere. Extensive bath and treatment rooms were quickly fitted up in the basements of two of these buildings. So within a few days’ time the sanitarium program was moving forward quite normally. WV 398.7

W. C. White refused to believe the first report of the disaster. But the second report bore evidence of authenticity, and in a letter he explained his feelings: “I wish to join with all our people in mourning at this great loss to us as a people, and to the world” (18 WCW, p. 425). WV 399.1

The citizens of Battle Creek asked for the privilege of holding a mass meeting in the tabernacle on the evening of Wednesday, February 19. It was led by the clergy of the city. The tabernacle was packed; eulogies were spoken, and pledges given of moral and financial support. WV 399.2

As Ellen White pondered the first sketchy news of the fire, while the embers were still warm in Battle Creek, she wrote: WV 399.3

Our heavenly Father does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. He has His purpose in the whirlwind and the storm, in the fire and in the flood. The Lord permits calamities to come to His people to save them from greater dangers (Manuscript 76, 1903). WV 399.4