Fire reached the roof and top (fifth) floor of the east wing of St. Paul's Hospital early on Wednesday, October 25, 1951. About 250 patients were evacuated, with no injuries reported. Initial damage was estimated to be approximately $125,000. The fire was front-page news for many newspapers in the U.S., such as the Chicago Daily Sun-Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. One of the items in the UT Southwestern Archives is a scrapbook containing images and newspaper clippings about the fire.