Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-04-14
DEATH TRAPS IN new YORK.
Eight Tenement Houses Tum.
bic Down.
A Number Of Lives Reported
Lost.

men are believed to have been killed, and the
cries of the injured can be heard beneath the
debris imploring help. Up to 4.30 this after
noon 10 persons had been removed from the
ruins. They we're seriously but not fatally
injured, and were removed to the hospital
Gangs of men are at work on the debris as
1t is feared many others of the workmen are
still buried in the ruins. The buildings were
erected last winter and were reported by the
building department as unsafe. The work
man were engaged In repairing defects in the
houses at the time the accident occurred. No
morter was used in the construction of the
buildings. the bricks being held in place BY
sand. Sixty-fve persons are said to have
been in the houses and 90 are thought to have
been killed.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
New YORK, April Is.
The eight five story tenement houses on the
south side OF Sixty-second street betw ee n
Tenth and Eleventh avenues that have re-
Gently been put under roof, fell down this
afternoon while efforts were being made to
brace them up. The wreck was complete,
not stick remained standing, not timber
remained whole in the entire row. Half a
hundred workmen were employed in and
about the buildings at the time, and IL at
1t was said soon after the accident that 20
persons were buried in the ruins, but up to a
late hour no bodies had been found and ru-
mor had reduced the number of killed to
eight.
The excitement about the place was so
great that it was difficult to obtain any reli-
able information as to who might have been
killed, but gangs of workmen employed
in searching for remains found no clue to
any object of their search up to night fall
most superficial examination of the debris
showed the cause of the disaster to be wretch
ed workmanship and poor material. The
morter contained little or no sand but loan
or mud instead and was wholly unfit for use
This and the fact that the building had been
erected during the cold weather and the use
of frozen brick were directly the cause of the
collapse.
The builder, Charles A. Buddensik, who
was responsible, left the neighborhood in a
carriage Immediately after the disaster and
and drove to his residence in East Seventy
Seventh street, where he went from there
nobody could learn. The police who arrest
ed master brick layer Charles Frank could
not find the builder. Buddensilk has been
for years in trouble with the authorities on
account of the ''skin" buildings he put up
The erection of the buildings had been 60
ing on since last December during all the
cold weather. The fourth story walls showed
weakness during a sodden thaw before the
fifth story was reached and had to be taken
down. When the grand thaw set in the walls
began to weaken and steps were taken to
brace them up from both ends so they would
stick together until the roots could be put on
and end walls rebuilt.
painters, fathers and plumbers, numbering
perhaps 30, were at work about the premises
at the time. Fifty men had been laid off as
the material had not arrived.
About 3. p. NJ, a shout of warning went
up. The end building, toward Eleventh Av.
enue, was seen to totter, and then fall with
thunderous noise. Both the foundation side
walls had fallen out, and the body of the
house, deprived of its support. fell in be-
tw cen to the cellar. The building adjoining
it, having nothing to lean upon, fell next
then the whole row followed like line of
card houses.
The continuous roar seemed to last
many minutes, as one after the other of the
buildings went down after Its neighbor
Workmen in the buildings for blocks around,
and people living on the street for half
mile about, were startled by the noise and
shock, and in very short time the locality
of the paper dwellings packed with an
excited populace, whose threats of vengeance
on the reckless builder, filled the air.
When the heavy clouds had cleared away,
the people looked on a heap of broken bricks
and timbers, which was piled only a few feet
above the level of the street.
Men with broken limbs and bruised faces and
members were struggling out from under the
Il. -, Z
away. Shrieks and groans were heard in one
or two places, and to these spots the people
rushed. The firemen and all available am
balances in the city were summoned to the
scene. Roosevelt Hospital ambulances were
first on hand. and carried away nine of the
wounded The hook and ladder companies
and crews OF three engine comphnies set to
work to remove the debris. A large gang of
workmen was pressed into service. aud in
fifteen minutes the labor of rescue was well
under way. Night set in before the attempt
were relaxed at all. Once or twice the
workers fancied they heard a cry for help, but
no person was found.
About 9 o'clock Louis Walters was found
betw cen many crossing timbers and held fast
in the ruins. He was extricated with great
difficulty. He had been engaged In bolster
ing up the building. He still breathed and
was removed to Roosevelt Hospital.
Digging was resumed under a strong force
of calcium lights. 1t is said that Buddensilk
had been hurt by falling brick When the
buildings fell there were many threats of
lynching the man and it was lucky for him
he stayed away. Buddensilk is notoriovs as
a builder of cheap edihces.
Manv narrow escapes were had. Andrew
Lane and John Gainor were painting on the
third story windows of one of the houses
when it fell. Lane landed in the cellar and
Gainor on the sidewalk. almost unhurt.
At midnight it was thought that four per-
sons-two stairbuilders and two plumbers
are still in the ruins.