Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-07-03
TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.
A Church Building in Syracuse, N. ( -,
Gives Way While Being Used for
FestivHl PurPoses-Thtrteen Persons
Killed and Several Others Seriously

| A Church Building in Syracuse, N. -,
Gives Way While Being Used for
Festival Purposes-Thtrteen Persons
Killed and Several Others Seriously
Injured.
THE Little Old Folks" of the Syracuse
On. ~ Central Baptist Church gave a straw
berry festival and concert the other evening
to gather funds to I'LL a depleted treasury.
At the rear Of the church were the Sunday
school rooms, occupying the first floor, aud
directly over these the church parlors It
was this part that was in use on the evening
Of the festival. At the time OF the accident
narrated below supper was being served in
the central parlor, which was entirely filled
with hungry people, the number present
being variously estimated at from $50 to 500,
mostly grown people. The little ones were
in one Of the ante-rooms preparing for
the concert, which was TO follow,
leaving the lower room very nearly
deserted. All at once, with scarcely
note Of warning, the floor suddenly sank be-
meath them and in an instant all were precip-
itated into the apartment below, where they
were hopelessly intcrmixed with their fellows,
fallen timbers, furniture and the debris of the
supper table. The fall Of the floor had broken
the gas pipes and thick darkness was added
to their misfortuncs. For brief moment
after the descent all was silent as the grave,
and then heart-rending appeals for help were
heard from hundreds Of those who were in
agony. Immediately after persons were seen
issuing from the doors and windows, and an
alarm was sounded. The unnjured within
the church who were able TO free themselves
from the mass began at once to assist in res
cuing others.
The scene within the building was terrible
and that without the edifce heart-rending.
Fathers and mothers searching for their chill
dren, husbands looking for wives, wives in
quiring for husbands, brothers for sisters, and
children for their parents, of whose fate all
were uncertain and in dread. Quickly and
rapidly the work Of extricating the people was
carried on by aid OF lanterns As fast as the
living and dead were rescued they were passed
out through the windows and doors, where
ready hands assisted to convey the dangerous
ly injured and dead to the physicians offices
and neighbOring houses.
The excitement without the church was ter.
riblc, and as each body was being carried to
adjoining houses the mass surged back and
forth, all terribly anxious to ascertain who it
was anu uCau Ut dllNc Al the HttSnL
of the excitement not less than 10000
people were crowded into the adjoining
neighborhood. The number of those killed
outright was thirteen, and of the 100 persons
injured, score or more were expected to die
The floor which fell was suspended by iron
rods from a wooden truss under the roof
These rods went through the lower, but not
through the upper chord of the truss. The
lower chord had been spliced the wrong side
up, and that side was the first TO give way
The floor having no props beneath it, sunk in
the form of a letter V. The most Of the
deaths were caused by falling timbers of the
truss; some, however, were smothered by
plastering. The floors OF the church were
supported originally by the pillars. A short
time ago the Church Building Committee,
with the consent, as they say, of the architect,
removed the iron pillars. The truss was very
imperfectly constructed.