New-York tribune., 1902-08-31
COFFEE WAREHOUSE CRASH
TWO FIVE STORY BUILDINGS ARE
WRECKED. BUT NO LIVES ARE LOST.

Tons OF Tricks, mortar beams and coffee feii
with a crash into the street and on the ele-
waited structure and trolley tracks at $40
O'Clock yesterday afternoon when the two nVe
story brick buildings Nos. AZ and Al Fulton-st,
Brookly collapsed Twenty-Five thousand bags
of green coffee weighing 132 pounds to the bag,
owned by j. H. Taylor and Smith & Walbridge
Of No. III Front-st. Manhattan were stored In
the building, and proved too great burden
BY marvellous good fortune not man was
in the building at the time. No one was on the
sidewalk, were any trolley cars or elevated
trains near by. Although it was reported that
two men had been covered by the debris on the
sidewalk and ambuances from two hospitals
were summoned. 1t was soon learned that not
a man. woman or child had received scratch
The buildings at No. 40-4S are owned py the
Hetield- -Ducker Company, which some years
ago went into the National Biscuit Company.
They are exceedingly old structures with con-
solidation the first three buildings were rented
Booth & Bailey occupy No. 40 and use 1t ior
coffee roasting plant The next two b1liolIss
were rented by the Brazil Warehouse COMPANY
a combination for storage purposes or the nrfns
of Smith & Wabridge and James H Iaylor.
They had occupied the property as ware
house for about year. Big, heavy braces were
placed under every floor, but in spite Of this,
weight of the coffee caused the crossbeams
to sag and persons familiar with the place had
predicted for some time that it would go down.
On Friday and yesterday UP to noon large
crowd of workmen busy putting in twenty
five hundred additional bags of coffee, Whlch
raised the total to twenty-five thousand bags on
five floors The two buildings had a fifty foot
frontage and ran back block to Doughty-st,,
making a large floor At noon yesterday
the workmen left the building; not even d
watcbman around.
The lower Fulton-st. station is almost across
the street, and Detective Brennan was just
coming out when the sound of cracking glass
caught his attention. He saw the wall OF the
warehouse bulge out, and ran into the middle
of the street shouting a warning. With few
preliminary groans and rumbles the five stories
toppled and crashed down through the centre
of the building and out onto the elevated struct-
ure and into the street The debris was heaped
ND as high as the first story of the adjoining
buildings in a rough, jagged mass of brlcks'
bags of coffee and protruding beams
Brennan had not had time to see Whetner any
one had been buried in the wreckage but 1t was
ranor+ad that two men had been caught in the
ruins Calls for ambulances and nre apparatus @
were Immediately sent out In flVe minutes W.
truck companies three engine companies dliu
the salvage corps under Deputy Chief Murray
were at work on the debris The flrst palo az
tention to the of wreckage on the slue-
u,aIl Two heavy iron beams that had sup
norted the fronts of the buildings were Weoeeu
tightly in the mass, forming sort OF Key.
To drag these out trolley cars were prouSht lhto
use and the debris was then thrown pdch
until it was made certain that there were no
bodies beneath 1t. -, r,-.o;,
Tte-, 4i,t fremen left, and Acting captain
KelIy of the lower Fulton-st police stauon'
nIaced a heavy guard about the building EN-
nloves of the Buildings Department look chdIeS
iate last night The back of the bulldlngs anu
a small part of the front of No AZ remain IN
tact but the structures are compete "Iech
and will undoubtedly have to be torn down.
Rooth & Bailey sustained no damage, except
through the breaking of two plate glass win
dows Their building will probably have 10 go
when the others are torn down. however, as
the beams from No. AZ project through INTO
their building. . 60
The loss to the buildings Will be ABOUT @IV'-
600 coffee man said last night that the
tUerty-fve thousand bags of coffee was worth
ahout $40 a bag. Many of the bags are torn
and IT is probIematcal now much of the prod
net can be saved. The loss, it is believed, now
ever, may reach SootUoo - ,,.
w s Bailey of the firm of Booth & Bailey,
had inst returned from the racetrack TO his
home in Flatbush, when his servant rushed OUT
ringing her hands and saying that the ponce
had lust been there and said that the bu1idlns
of the Eagle Storage and Warehouse Company
had fallen down Mr.. Booths building. Inc
Eagle Warehouse is large seven story oulld-
ING and Mr. Bailey rushed downtown, expecting
10 see his business wiped off the map.
Traffic on the Fulton-st- elevated railroad was
DELAYED for two hours, while the trolley cars
began running through to Fulton Ferry agaiu
in hour.