Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-12-06
A FRIGHTFut ACCIDENT.
Thirteen Persons Killed by the Col.
lapse of n Roof from Which They
Were Watching a Football Game.

San Francisco, Nov. 30.-By the COLI
hpse of the roof of the San francisco
and Pacific glass works at Fifteenth
and Bryant streets Thursday after
noon about rs people were injured
and 13 were killed.
The victims were watching a foot
ball game between the Stanford and
University of California teams, when
the roof beneath them gave way,
precipitating them to the floor of the
factory. Some of them fell on the
furnaces and one man of unknown
identity was burned almost to a crisp.
The crowd was gathered upon the
roof of a building directly over the
furnace of the glass works. When
the roof collapsed the occupants we're
precipitated on the heated top and
rolled off.
Seven of the dead are boys, rang
ing i'll age from 10 to 10 years. They
were found lying in a row and most
of them were badly mangled.
There were more than 200 people
on the roof when it collapsed and of
these Is went down. Those who we're
fortunate enough to be on a solid sec
ton of the building hurried down and
helped remove the injured. The heat
around the furnaces was so great,
however, that to many no assistance
could be rendered. and they slowly
roasted to death. Not 200 yards away
were 10000 people, watching the foot
ball game, and when the news became
known there was intense excitement
among them. The ushers went
through the crowd calling for doc
tors, and many surgeons left the
game. The living victims of the dis
aster were taken to various hospitals
A high fence surrounds the glass
works grounds and thousands of peo-
pie attempted to get inside the inclo-
sure. They were restrained with
difficulty by a large force of police.
The following is a list of the iden-
titled dead:
William Valencia.
j. A. Mulrooney.
Thomas Rippon.
w. II. Eckfeldt.
Edgar Flahein.
M. Vandina.
Talleyrand Barnwell.
Carroll Harold.
Frank Newby.
- Fox.
Three unidentified.
1t is reported that one man, Joseph
Gumper, fell into the furnace and his
body was incinerated.
The manager of the glass works
realized the danger before the acci-
dent occurred and had sent for the
police to compel the crowd to leave.
just as squad of officers arrived the
roof went down.
The fires in the furnaces had been
started yesterday for the first time
and the watts were full of liquid gllss.
1t was upon these that the victims
fell. Some were killed instantly and
others were slowly roasted to death.
The few who missed the furnaces
rolled off and, together with work
men in the glass works, saved the
lives of many by pulling them away
from their horrible resting place.
Nearly all of the victims had their
skulls fractured or limbs broken and
sustained serious internal injuries
The portion of the roof which col.
lapsed was merely the covering over
the ventialtor bars at the apex ot
the building and was not constructed
to sustain any heavy weight. The
horizontal timbers in the center, cor.
responding to the ridge pole of an
ordinary structure, broke near the
center and the light framework un.
derneath with its covering of CORFU.
gated iron turned inword, forming
chute through which the men and
boys were precipitated into the far
naces beneath. Only few were act
ually burned to death, the majority
being killed by the fall.