A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.
The Cleveland Clinic fire was a major structure fire at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on May 15, 1929. It started in the basement of the hospital and it was sparked when an exposed lightbulb came too close to flammable nitrocellulose x-ray film. The fire, generating poisonous gas and two separate explosions, claimed 123 lives, including that of one of the clinic's founders, Dr. John Phillips. Policeman Ernest Staab was killed by the gas while rescuing twenty-one victims.