The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1897-06-04
FELL FIVE STORIES
Five Big Tanks Full Of Water Wreck a
Building and Bury Woikmen.
NOT A SINGLE MOMENTS WARNING
COntrnctor, Architect aud Inspector
te,npts TO Shii tile Responsibility
-.Mortar Pronounced Nothing but
Mud-Complete Collapse.
New York, June 3, 1897.


Five enormous tanks, each containing
$4,000 gallons Of water, fell five stories
through the new building Of David S.
Brown & Co, soap manufacturers, at
twelfth avenue, Fifty-first and Fifty
second streets this morning, burying
two and perhaps three men under the
thousands Of tons Of debris
The body Of William Frazer, forty
years old, q surveyor in the employ Of
the Otis Elevator Comnay, was taken
from the ruins this afternoon Jacob
jacobson, Il carpenter, is missing.
The place was nearly ready for occu-
pancy. The tanks were to have con-
tanned soap fat. They were put in by
the Coatsville Iron Works. OF Coatsville
Ia. Alexander Brown, the brick con
tractor; Henry T. I<ilburn, the architect.
ana Archie Hamilton. inspector for the
IRON work contractors, We're arrested
charged with homicide The five tanks
shot through the five floors like q stone
dropping through SO much space There
were fifteen men in the building at the
time OF the accident. They were scat
tered around the factory. There was not
seconds warning OF the fall OF The
tanks. They had been filing with water
iof tcStlnS ana were nearly full Tho
tanks were each l3XI3 feet square by 90
feet In height. They were made of sheet
IRON, anu were quarter of an inch
ing their sides stout iron bands had
been placed inside Of each tank. rhe
Iall or the tanks. carrying with them
nVe Hoofs OF iron and Woodwork was
neard for several blocks around. At tho
tall OF the tanks they carried down iron
orders and beams a foot in width and
aour ~ iel., lhenes IN thickness, snapping them
as II they were pipe stems. There was
no stopping as they struck the floors
IN succession, SO enormous was the
weight Of the tanks. All Of the mon
VINO mad been inside the building were
got together and counted. 1t was found
mat two were missing. They were ia
cobson and Frazer.
y Wrecking firm undertool. ;ba 10
moVal or the debris. At 4 O'Clock Fraz
ers pody was partially uncovered and
three hours later it was taken out
Coroner Fitzpatrick said that It was
probably the bulging of the tanks, which
had caused the dislodgement OF the wall
and caused the fall Of the tanks and
floors
Agent John S. Jackson, Of the Penn
ssylvania iron firm, said that the break
lhg OF the bands on the inside of the
tanks had probably been caused by the
settling Of the floor. Police Captain
Schmittberger said that the tanks had
would be arrested for 1t.
Archltect kilburn said that he had
mad personal charge of the construction
or the building, which had been planned
Dy MN, and that It was one Of the finest
buildings of It's kind he had ever seen.
me walls Of the factory were a third
Chlckerthan the specifications had called
1or All the work was OF the best mate
rial and workmanship, and no expense
mad been spared in the construction of
a portion OF the new building or in
hitting 1t up as a factory. He could give
no opinion as to what caused the ac-
cident.
Alexander Brown, the masonry con-
tractor. said that the masonry was first
class IN every respect and had been put
up under close supervision.
Another phase was put on the ques-
tion OF inculpation by the decision of
ex-United States Superintendent of
Buildings Hugh Angler, now with the
street Cleaning Department OF this
city. He took up some OF the mortar
IN the refuse and pronounced it Of a
bad quality. Its nothing but mud" he
said.
Samples OF the mortar will be ex-
an ned by experts.
District Attorney Olcott will attend
the inquest and will prosecute those re-
sponsible for the disaster
There Is some discussion as 70 the
combined weight OF the tanks on the
floors and the weight Of the floor should
sustain. 1t was said by a representative
Of the Coatsville Iron Works that the
floor should have sustained g. weight Of
twenty times the weight Of one Of the
filled tanks.