The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-02-26
The Anrighting Catastropne IN ST.
Andrews Church.

IAAOiiS ga VIC ouuuCA anu
calamities that have happened in this city
there was never one SO fitted to stir the public
heart to mingled emotions of horror, pity,
sympathy, Indignation and an awful sense OF
the uncertainty of life as that which befell
the quiet worshippers in ST. Andrews church,
on Duane street. yesterday evening This
edifce stands on the north side of Duane
street, near Chatham street. Sweeny's Hotel,
large and high brick building, is located on
the corner facing both streets. Just west of
it, on Duane street, and adjoining it, was
q tall, narrow store, six stories in height,
whose interior was consumed By fire on the
12tn OF January, leaving its iron front and
brick sidewalks standing. The next building
to this is st. Andrews church, a Catholic
place of worship-a low, large structure,
capable of seating on its floor and in its broad
galleries about fifteen hundred psople
Between this low-roofed church and
the western side-wall of the tall, deep store
left standing since the fire of January IL was
space OF some two or three feet.
This was the condition of things exterior to
the church and in its close neighborhood
when the congregation assembled for worship
last evening. The prayers, chants and other
services which precede the sermon had been
gone through with in the regular order, and
Father Carroll, of ST. Stephens church. was
in the pulpit, in the midst Of discourse
which rose to an unusual pitch of solemnity,
as if some mysterious premonition were oper-
ating on the mind of the preacher. He was
speaking of death, and warning the dense
and crowded congregation of the fearful
danger Of postponing preparation for that
event, when, with dreadful suddenness his
discourse was interrupted by loud, stupeiy-
ing crash, followed in second or two by
another. The wild amazement and frantic
terror which ensued defes description. Those
stupendous crashes came through the roof on
the east side of the building, bringing down
portions of the roof and heavy, crush
ing mass of loose bricks upon the
heads Of the people in the gallery on that
side. In the CONSERVATION, establishment and
horror which seized that crowded congrega-
ton persons in the gallery leaped over upon
the heads of people in the pews, and there
was tumultuous rush toward the doors, in
which many were either squeezed and crushed
to death or dreadtully injured. In the confusion
nobody knew how many had been killed
or how many wounded in the gallery by the
weight which came down upon their heads
with the falling roof After great effort and
difficulty the church was at last cleared, the
dead decently removed, the severely wounded
taken to hospitals and the more slightly
wounded to their homes.
The cause of this horrible spectacle of
death, manning, fright. confusion and horror,
which came without warming and with such
terrible swiftness upon that peaceful religious
assembly, is apparent from the description of
the locality. The long, high, western wall of
the six story burned building left standing
since the fire of the 10Th of January, had
suddenly fallen upon the low roof of the
church, breaking through and driving down
the heavy incumbent mass upon the heads of
the people in the gallery directly underneath
The scene which ensued in the church fills the
imagination with shuddering horror
1t would be an egregious trifing with pub
Lie patience and an insult to the moral sense
of the community to call this dreadful horror
an accident The unanimous voice of
the city will brand and denounce it
as an atrocious crime. Six weeks have
passed since the fire which left that
long, thin, high, crumbling wall standing
almost directly over the roof of the next build
ing, on which it might fall at any hour of the
IL
not less murderous but more murderous, by
the fact that the low adjoining building was
q church. Had the dangerous wall come down
with a sudden crash upon private residence
the peril to life would have been comparatively
slight. But to leave such tall, frail, top
heavy menace hanging for SIX weeks over the
roof of building in which from thirteen
to fifteen hundred people assemble sew
eral times each week was o negli-
gence so wanton, so inexcusable, so utt rly
heartless, so fagrantly criminal, that no
language is adequate to set forth its tur-
pitude, and no severity of indignant denun-
citation can match the offence.
The reason why that dangerous, death-deal-
ing wall has stood SO long and postponed this
terrible catastrophe is to be found in the re-
cent condition of the weather. On the night
of the fire and during the greater part of the
time since, until within the last two or three
days, the weather was intensely cold. The
water thrown upon the cracking wall by
the fire engines froze into the crevices,
the ice acting as q cement to hold it together
The recent thaw, and especially the warm
rain Of yesterday afternoon and evening. dis
placed the adhesive ice in the assures of the
wall, and left the whole mass to obey the law
of gravity. which brought it down with
swift, terrible crash.
The whole blame of this appalling calamity
must rest upon the Department of Buildings.
and especially upon the officer called by our
present charter the Surveyor of Buildings.