The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-03-02
BURIED IN BRICK AND MORTAR.
Two Buildings In New York City Fail Down
Oh the Work men.

one in course of construction and one
in course of demolition. collapsed in
this city today and killed five men and
fatally injured OF MANNED or bruised
nineteen others. The first accident oc-
CURED about $50 am.
A house at the corner of Forty-third
street and Tenth avenue which was
being torn down by some forty labor
ers. fell with a crash, carrying several
workmen to the basement three floors
below and they were most completely
covered with tons of bricks, dry NOR
tar and iron beams. The dead are:
HUGH CULLEN.
ANGELO VICAR.
JOHN O'CONNOR.
JAMES MALLOY-
The injured are: Pat Curran, Thomas
McConnon Edward Meaney, N. f. Kee-
ley, Louis Stein, Felix Moran, Charles
Robson,
The building which was an old one,
had been used as a malt house by NJ. &
a Z. Schwenfurth for the past thirty
years. but it has not been occupied for
more than two years.
1t was eight stories high and ran back
about sixty feet on West Forty-third
street Men were tearing down the old
structure under the direction OF Con-
tractors O'Keefe and Keegan. The work
had gone on successfully until this
morning, when the men had got down
as far as the rear of the third floor,
known as the old kiln house"
RUMBLING NOISE HEARD.
There were about eighteen men on
this floor at the hour mentioned when
suddenly there was a rumbling noise
and the building rocked as II shaken
by an earthquake. In another moment
the floor gave way and fell with its
human freight to the basement, carry
ing the other floors with it. In an in
slant every person in the neiShDorhood
which is filed with tenement houses
felt that something awful had occurred
and men, women and children ran ms
tractedly in all directions
Some of the cooler heads turned IN
the fire alarm and ambulance calls,
which were quickly responded TO. AS
sisted by some laboreTs who had for
tunateIy esca ped. and many willing citi-
ZenS the firemen began the work OF res
cue II was a hard and very dangerous
task as the walls We're tottering and
the remaining flooring and beams over
head threatened to topple down every
moment. Besides. the reScusrS had TO
be very cautious, fearing that the slight
est carelessneSS on their part might end
the lives of some of the injured, whose
groans and cries for help came from
all directions underneath the stones
and debris. from which heads, arms
and legs protruded.
Ats o'clock John Connor was brought
out but he died in the ambulance on the
way to Roosevelt hospital. Half an
hour later the dead bodies of Cullen and
Vicor were e8tricated The rescuers
worked desperately and by II O'Clock
everyone Of the labOrers had been ac-
counted for. Contractors George w.
O'Keefe and Patrick Keegan were ar
rested, but were later admitted to bail
by the coroner.
SECOND ACCIDENT.
The second accident occurred about
3:35 O'Clock this afternoon. Without the
slightest warning TO the fifty men
that worked near it, the central wall of
the four double tenement houses being
erected at Isl and 157 Orchard street,
crumbled and fell. With the wall went
portions of four floors, leaving a great
rent fifty feet long and thirty feet wide
in the center Of the buildings. 1t was
like a pit at the bottom of which was a
mass of tangled iron and broken wood
that covered many men. From that
heap in an hour had been taken out one
man dead and twelve injured. The
dead man is John Wilson. The injured
are: William Wilkinson, back broken;
Frank Thornton, badly injured;
Gloria, both legs broken; John Thorn
ton, bodily injuries; Thomas Wilson,
broken; Joseph Barbarar left leg broken
Frank Barbara, back injured: Joseph
MeZire, head injured; Patrick Flaherty.
leg injured; Pat Malloy, back injured;
William Malloy, arms bruised.
Abraham Levy, with three or four
other men, got into the building and
dragged out three men who were only
lightly held down by bits of wood. The
second man carried out was John
Wilson. 1t could be seen at once that
he was badly hurt. After that the fire.
man came, soon to be followed by the
reserves from the Eldridge street po-
lice station There were fifty men
working in the four buildings.
ON THE FOURTH FLOOR.
Most of the men were on the fourth
floor of the house, No. i55. Between
the front and rear of the house was n
big party wall that crumbled In a
heap the men went down with the fall
ing floor. one of the brick layers,
Michael LuScaleS, was near a window
toward the front Of the house. He had
just time as the floor sank beneath
him to clutch at n window sash and
was left cIinging 10 the fraif support
four stories above the ground He
managed to crawl up so as TO sit on the
window SILL from which position he
was afterwards rescued by the fire
men.
The cries of the imprisoned men
could be heard on every side when the
iiremen came. Alarms were sent at
once for additional firemen to begin
removing the timbers. Ten of the
twelve men who were rescued early
We're gotten out with little trouble,
The contractors are John Coomes OF
Astoria and Peter -. Cleyes The
owner * William +. Lannon. All were
arrested.
captain Cartwright said he had
made = careful eXamina ton of the
building and said il was a surprise to
him that the house had stood as long
as ii did. The mortar, he said. had
been examined by an expert and pro-
nounced worthless. 1t was of the
weakest sort II was also said that
the bricks were of poor quality: that
the beams were not properly supported
and that the iron girders were not on
stone in the walls as they should be
At the station bail for the arrested men
was refused. The police tried To find
Building Inspector Timothy J. Ormsbv
10 learn from him why he had not re-
ported the tiirlsy character of the
building. They were not able TO find
him