Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-08-27
A TERRIBLE DIsAsTA
Three Buildings Suddenly FallA 49,
the Street-People Crushed
and Burned.


and Burned.
A most disastrous and terrible accident
occurred Saturday at 10 80 in Park Pace
between Greenwich street and College
Place, New York.
At the time the street was filled with
people. First small, white, vaporish
cloud burst from the ground floor of
Nos, 20, 70 and "a Park Place. Then
was heard a dull roar, fallowed by masses
of brick, stone and timber being hurled
thirty five feet heavenward. Not more
than asecond could possibly have elapsed
before the front walls of Nos. TO- ~ and
"a fell crashing into the streets. The
great walls rolled and swayed with an
undulating motion at first, but then
more rapidly,
They gave way and in a moment there
vas not stick or stone standing above
ne first floor Between the dividing
ais there did not remain the slightest
Semblance of what had been three sec
IDS before # an apparently strong and
I'll constructed building. The mass of
rick, stone and lumber filed one half
the width of the street.
A little later fire broke out and was
'cking the lower part of No. s, and fifty
len clambered upon the ruins to rescue
some of the unfortunate people known
t1 he buried in the rubbish. 1t had
,urst out on the other side of the ruins
tud run up the elevator shaft at the
main entrance of the block of buildings.
Tor time the escaping steam fought
he fire, but as that died out the element
ade more Roadway. Ii the fire de-
,,rtment could have been on the scene
tt the time of the explosion the terrible
fleet of the fire could have been pre-.
vented in large part; as it was, the first
;ontingent of the department did not
ippear until five minutes after the ex-'
'losion. The delay was due to the
locked condition OF Murray street and
ark Place at Church street. One hose
art came tearing down College Place.
electric wires were hanging down just
about the horses heads. The driver of
he cart. with bare hands, grasped the
wire which had caught on his seat and
lung it over his head.
When the full force of fremen did at
asst get at work the Roadway of the fire
tas soon checked.
There was a cheap restaurant in the
round floor of "a, in which were about
wenty five persons when the accident
appened. In the upper portion of the
uilding there was large number of
Yorkmen employed by the firm of litho-
,raphers and in other trades. 1t is not
lnown how many people were employed
n the places, but it is thought most of
hem who were not out getting some
hing to eat, were in the building
For two hours the fire could not be
ubdued to permit the firemen to make
effort to extricate the dead and
Wounded. In the meantime the widest
ort of conJectures concerning the num-
,ers caught in the ruins flew about.
Dead and injured were being exhumed
rom the debris in the street-people
Who had been passing in front of the
paildings when they toppled outwards.
One of the men who has been identified
$ named M. t. Barnett of Johnson CITY.
Tenn He was taken to the hospital
md found to have depressed fracture
# the skull. Trepanning was resort
ID to.
Two dead children and one living, but
ably injured, child were taken out.
ney belonged to the families of the
,nitors of buildings on the same block
md were playing in the street. The
first body found was lying in Park Place,
10 feet from the curbstone, under feet
thickness of bricks. Some people bad
escaped from the rear and side of the
ruins in Greenwich street.
These were principally cooks and other
Employees of the restaurant and Others
Who had been In the basement of the
wrecked buildings. A policeman and
fireman made their way from Greenwich
street through the basement until they
reached the cellar wall of the first
wrecked buildings Into this they
shocked hole and took out three people.
They say they could see Others fast In the
ruins, but could not assist them because
the flames surrounded them, so there is
no means as yet of determining the ex-
net extent of the disaster or its cause.