Cleveland Clinic Disaster
On May 15, 1929 an explosion occurred at the original site of the Cleveland Clinic claiming the lives of 123 people including patients, employees, and visitors. It is believed to have been caused by poisonous gases produced by x-ray film chemicals and heat from an exposed light bulb. Pictured below is the Clinic prior to the explosion.
And after the explosion...
Shown below are Cleveland Clinic staff around that time frame.
Victims were attended to . . .
As casualties were carted away . . .
Relief workers taking a break . . .
By 1930, an architect drew up plans for the new Cleveland Clinic (situated at the same site, E. 93rd and Euclid Ave., but unoccupied since the 1929 explosion) approved by Dr. George W. Cole, then-president of the Clinic Foundation. The new outpatient clinic reopened in 1931 next to the damaged site.
