At 1:00 AM on August 28, 1899, fire breaks out in St. Agnes Convent with 350 children and 42 Sisters and workers inside. Fire spreads to nine buildings. Older boys and Sisters carry out children. Some are dropped out of windows to mattresses below. Volunteer firemen and many others come to help. All but five are rescued. The injured are moved to the Dominican Convent in Blauvelt or to an emergency hospital in a farmhouse. The fire destroys the convent, chapel, and orphanage. Children and Sisters are cared for by the Sisters of St. Dominic at Blauvelt until they are able to relocate in a vacant seminary in Troy, NY.