The record-union., 1898-01-04
A Section Of the Floor Of a Crowded
Hall CoIIapses.
Thirty People Known to Have Been Killed
and Many Others Injured.
The Accident Occurs While Two
Thousand People Were damned
Into the Hall to Listen to Ad-
dresses of Successful Candidates
for Municipal Offices.

LONDON (Ontl, Jan. 3-Thirty per-
sons are known to have been killed and
many injured by the collapse of floor
in the City Hall tonight. Many OF the
injured are in a serious condition. OW-
ing to the fact that many of the injured
were carried to their homes, 1t is dlI1l-
cult to gather names.
At midnight the bodies of the follow
ing had been taken out of the wrecked
building ard identified: F. Heaman, C.
Beckett, E. Luxton, n. Carothers, H.
Leigh, Mr.. Harris, T. w. Burke, John
Smith, Mr.. Talbot, A. Phillips, John
Turner, Ben Nash, J. w. Borland, Mr.
Hilburn, Frank Robinson, James NC
Lean, John Barridge, Oswald Bruce, >.
Basques, w. H. Dell, Stephen Williams,
John Fellows, Allen Towe, and an un-
identified man.
The injured, so far as can be learned,
include the following: DR.. Wilson, the
Mayor-elect, leg broken; Alderman Ca
rothers. slightly injured; Edward Mop
kin; Mr.. Burgess: William Gray, leg
broken; Mr.. Fleming, both arms
broken; William Jones, Water Commits
sioner-elect, badly bruised; Joshua Dar-
chud; John Blanch; Alderman Neil
Cooper; Mr.. Van Wyck; George wy
ales. city editor of the News" Harry
Passmore, reporter on the Advertiser
staff
Those who are more seriously injured
We're taken to neighboring drug stores,
whence they were taken to the hospital
or to their homes, after their injuries
had been attended to.
The dead were taken to the commit
Tee rooms of Alderman Parnell, the de-
feated candidate for Mayor, directly
across the street.
Tonight closed the municipal cam
paign, and the hall was crowded to hear
the addresses of the successful eandi-
dates. where it had been the custom in
years past for the successful candi-
dates to address the electors.
The building was crowded to the very
doors, probably 1000 people being
jammed in it's narrow space. There
was a lull in the proceedings, when the
audience called for several OF the newly
elected Aldermen at once, and there
was some delay in securing a speaker
to address them. Alderman Carothers
Joined the Mayor in an effort to secure
quiet.
In response TO numerous calls r. NJ.
Toothe was pushed forward to the plat
form on which the speakers stood AS
he reached ii there was an ominous
cracking. and the raised platform on
which the Mayor and newly elected AL
dermen were seated seemed to pitch
forward to the floor.
There was a sagging Of timbers, and
the next moment 80 people were hurl-
ed twenty feet to the floor below. a
beam running twenty feet along the
center of the hall had given way, and
the crowded mass standing above that
section of the floor was thrown in a
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 tie 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 a terrible panic.
Those In front were thrown down by
the on-eoming rush. shrieking and
fighting for the door and safety. Only
one-haf of the rear door, a space OF
probably three feet. was opei-, and in
the mad rush no one thought to open
the door in its entirety, and 800 people
struggled through the narrow space,
the strong bearing down the weaker.
Alderman Neil Cooper was among
the first to be dragged out OF the mass
of broken beams. He was quickly car
ried to an adjacent room, and in mo-
ment half a dozen more were keeping
him company.
Several men lowered ropes and en-
deavored TO haul the injured out OF
the pitt From under the massed weight
of the broken beams came many cries
for help. The windows on the ground
floor were broken in, and living and
dead We're tenderly passed TO the wait
ing ambulance.
An investigation Of the wreck after
the catastrophe disclosed the fact that
a whole section Of the floor had drop
ped. 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 fifties, and Of late years addi-
tional stories had been placed on the
Old walls.
In the Grand Opera house, which ad-
Joins the wrecked building, the first
act of The Girl from Paris had been
completed, when word was whispered
through the theater of the disaster. a
panic was imminent, but was averted
by the actors and ushers, and the peo-
ole quietly left the building.
Many of these carried down by the