Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-23
"A Terrible Accident in New
York City.
The Sudden Collapse of a Large
Building.
Scores of Human Beings Buried in
the Ruins.
To Add Horror to the Scene the Wreck
Takes Fire-The Number Of Dead
Estimated at from Fifty to
Two Hundred.
d. Associated Press D,spatchea-

New York, August PA most dis
tressing accident occurred this afternoon
in Park Place, between Greenwich street
and College Place. At that time the
street was filed with people and heavily
laden wagons and trucks. A small va
porish cloud was seen to burst from the
ground floor Of 70 and 72 Park Place, fol-
lowed by dull, sullen roar. This was
followed Immediately by an eruption,
and mass of brick, stone and timber
was hurled thirty feet in the air. Then
the front walls of the buildings at Nos.
20 and "a, fell crashing into the street,
leaving not the slightest semblance of
what had been there few seconds be-
fore, an apparently strong and well con-
structed building. The mass of fallen
brick and timber half filed the street.
THE WRECK TAKES FIRE.
At first there was no sign of fire. The
falling walls broke the steam pipes, from
which steam was spouting forth. A
number OF electric wires were torn
down, but fortunately the current was
turned off from all but one. Crowds
made the streets almost impossible.
Fire was now seen to be breaking out at
No. 68. A large number of men who
had clambered upon the ruins to assist
the wounded people in getting out OF the
building were forced from their posts By
the fire. which was spreading rapidly.
Owing to the blocked condition of all
the neighboring streets the fire depart-
ment could not get to the building for
several minutes. Finally small stream
played on the house next to No. 6S.
Soon the engines arrived and all directed
their efforts to one side of the building.
Suddenly flames burst from the third,
fourth and fifth stories of that part OF
the building on Park Place, next to
Greenwich street, occupied by Lindsay's
type foundry. The. floor was saturated
with oil, which fed the flames gener-
ously. A. mumur ran through the
throng as they thought OF the fate OF the
occupants of the ruined and burning
part of the building. When the full
force of iremen at last got to work, they
soon checked the flames.
HORRIBLE coNJECTUREs.
Horrible conjectures now began to be
circulated regarding the probable num-
Der OF injured in the ruins. The work.
men, clerks and others OF the neighbor-
hood generally go home at the hour the
fire happened. On the ground floor Of
No. IS was a restaurant in whic h were
about twenty-five persons when the ac-
cident happened In the upper portion
OF the building there were a large
number OF persons employed. 1t is
not known how many were employed in
the building, but it was thought proba-
bly, most OF those employed there were
in the building at the time of the acci-
dent. For two hours the entire subject
of inquiry by those who thronged the
streets, was how many were killed or
injured, It was fully two hours before
the fire could be sufficiently subdued to
allow the fremen to make the least
effort to extricate dead and wounded
from the ruins. The number of dead
was variously estimated at from fifty to
two hundred.
Policeman Peck, who got into the
kitchen, under the restaurant, through
plumbing shop, said he hauled three
bodies from there, and that in the base
ment were at least fifty bodies of dead
and wounded.
EYE-wITNESSES' STORIES. e.,
Dominick Burke, cook employed il
the restaurant, escaped from the kitchen.
He said there were five persons busy at
work in the kitchen when there was a
great crash. ''It seemed as if the
whole building was falling about u.s.
said he, "but none of us were hurt.
There was a door from the basement
into No. 76, but it was closed. knocked
it down and the others followed me out
We crawled through an opening in the
wall, which had partly fallen"
Policeman Joseph Back was near the
building where the explosion occurred.
He ran to the scene and found the
building wrecked and burning fiercely.
He said: II saw nothing could be done
from the front, and with one OF the fire.
men I went through the basement on
Greenwich street, with hooks, bars and
axes. We made hole through the
wall of the wrecked building, through
which we took three iof the employees
from the kitchen of the restaurant. We
could see others fast in the ruins, but
could not assist them, being prevented
by smoke and fames."
James Schlesinger, an employee in a
UuluiuS Ou bhO oPPOHioS oicO "a oAAD
street, said there must have been at least
100 persons in the building when the
explosion occurred. He saw dozen or
more girls at the windows of one of the
offices on the third floor, just as the
building fell.
Various persons who were in the
neighborhood of the ruired buildings
when the accident occurred give ac-
counts of the scene at the time the wall
fell. They saw one or mora persons,
who were undoubtedly killed or in
jured. The persons seen were in differ
ent parts of the buildings, according to
the portion of the street on which the
observers stood.
H.. G. Stahl, formerly employed by
Lieber Il Mas, saw the crush. 81 know
most of the men employed there" said
he. II recognized one of them-Louis
Bernark--as he fell into the street with
the wall. When he struck the ground
he scrambled to his feet and got away,
but is now at the hospital, badly III
iured. saw many others go dowr
q set va sssSs.a. ~