The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1898-01-07
TWENTY-FOUR DEAD.
Terrible Accident in a Canadian Town
Caused by Floor Cellapsing.

-Cansed by FLOOR C0Haps1ng.
London, Ont, Jan. 5.-Twenty-four
persons are known to have been killed
and many injured by the collapse of a
floor in the city hallthis evening. To-
night closed the municipal campaign,
and the hall was crowded to hear the
address of the successful candidates.
At midnight the bodies of the follow
ing had been taken out and identified:
F. Heaman, G. Breckett, E. Luxton,
N. Carothers, R. Leigh, -. Harris, T.
w. Burke, John Smith, -. Talbot, A.
Phillips, John Turner, Ben Nash, j.
w. Bortland, -. Hilburn, Frank Rob-
inson, James Mclean, John Barridge,
Oswald Bruce, B. Jacques, w. Ell. Dell,
Stephen Fellows, Allen Love, unidenti-
fed man.
Those who were more seriously in
jured were taken to neighboring drug
stores, whence they were taken to hos
pitfalls or to their homes, after their in
juries had been attended to.
The dead were taken to the ommit-
tee rooms of Alderman Parnell. the de-
feated candidate for mayor, directly
across the street.
At the close of the polls crowd had
gathered in the city hall, where it had
been the custom in years past, for the
successful candidates to address the
people. The hall was crowded to the
very doors, probably 2. 900 people being
jammed in its narrow space. There
was lull in the proceedings, when the
audience called for several OF the newly
IL o1J Of hor
was some delay III securing speaker
to address them. Alderman Carothers
joined the mayor in an effort to secure
quiet. In response to numerous calls,
R. M. Toothe was pushed forward to
the platform on which the speakers
stood. AS he reached it there was an
ominous cracking, and the raised plat
form on which the mayor and the new
ly elected aldermen were seated seemed
to pitch forward to the floor.
There was a sagging of timbers, and
the next moment $50 people were
hurled 30 feet to the floor below. A
beam running 20 feet along the center
of the hall had given way. and the
crowded mass standing above that Sec
tion of the floor was thrown in heap
to the bottom. A large safe stood in
one corner of the hall, and, with a
huge steam coil, weighing half ton.
came crashing down on the heads of
the victims.
Following the crash there was wild
rush for the doors. At the south door,
where the majority of the crowd had
entered, there was terrific panic.
Those in front were thrown down by
the oncoming rush, shrieking and
fighting for the door and safety. Only
one-half 6f the rear door, space of
probably three feet, was open, and, in
the mad rush, no one thought to open
the door to it's entirety, and SO people
struggled through the narrow space,
I the strong bearing down the weaker.
Alderman Neil Cooper was among
the first to be dragged ont of the mass
of broken beams. He was quickly CAR
|. ried to an adjoining room, and in "a
moment half dozen more were keep
/ ing him company.
Several men lowered ropes and en-
[ deavored to haul the wounded out of
the pit. =. From under the. massed
weight of the broken beams came
many cries for help. The windows on
the ground floor were broken in, and
the living and the dead were tenderly
passed to the waiting am balances.
An investigation of the wreck after
the catastrophe had happened disclosed
/ the fact that a whole section of the
floor had dropped, the joists having
been as-neatly cut off as though the
work had been done with a saw.
The building was an old one, having
been erected in the early sos, and of
late years additional stories had been
placed on the old walls.