Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-04-21
Mammoth Scaffolding Came
 Down With A Crash.
J. F. CALVIN HAD CLOSE CALL

very Fortunate That Several Lives aA
 Least Were Not Lost Crash Hap-
 pened on the Busiest Thoroughfara
 But Luckily Enough the Walk Was
 Almost Deserted at Time Supports
 Had Been Moved and Were Probably
 Not Put Back Properly.
 waterbury had another sensation foe day Which for a time looked as if ft
 might be something more serious fhan all the other things that have occurred
 here the past year and which have oe- casloned so much comment. Shortly
 pefore noon the big scaffolding in fronf or the Camp block on Bank street came uoWn without q moments warning. creating noise that was heard all over town and leading those ill the neigh
 oorhood to conclude that the big struc<
 lure nad crumbled to the ground Ih
 was thought that several persons were caught under the timbers and for a rev minutes 1t was impossible to tell
 WneLher thls was so or not, the dust
 turned up by the collapse rendering it impossible to see anything As soon as the workmen caught their breafh an investigation was commenced. when 1t was learned that nobody got caught
 under the timbers, and so far as could
 Pc ascertained no one was in any wav hurt. The, scaffo1ding was I5S feet long and contained some very heavy beams, any one of which would crush
 man to death.
 Large numbers of people use the
 walk and it was a miracle that but one
 person happened to be on it when tha
 crash came. This was John F. Calvin of the Brooklyn district, who was on his way home to dinner. He saw the scaffolding coming down, but didnst have time to get off the walk He
 managed, however, to get between two
 large beams and in this position eg- l capped without a scratch A few chIIs. dren who were in the street direcfi& in front of the building had iusg stepped to place of safety in time to save their lives. Others were about to enter at the walk from either end and after they realized how close they had | come to death, could hardly help l thinking that they must have had somebody's prayer when they started out this morning
 Nobody knows why the scaffoIding l happened to fall Mr Camp said thai some time ago he spoke to Superinten- 1 dent Kelley of the street department
 about paving the gutter in front Of the
 building and that Mir Kelley informe5l him he could not do it until the l posts were removed off the street Tn order to make way for the superin-
 tendent of streets MT Camp had the 1 posts moved out of the gutter onto the ] sidewalk. saving enough off the ends I to have them come just right Tn do- I ing this he thinks it was not braeed as l we'll as it was during the winter and l thinks that a strong gust of wind from the rear of the building must have giv4 1 en it start and once it got going it
 kept on until it went to the end. A l peculiar thing about it was that several large lights of glass which the Tracy l Bros had stored under the scaffolding l went down in the wreck but none of l them were broken. Several other large squares of plate glass which have since been placed in position were un-.
 der it since the change was made sd l that it is not likely that the plate glasg cases that were there to-day had any~
 thing to do with it. Some of the tim bers went clear across the street. 1 blocking the trolley tracks and exterds' l ing almost to the gutter on the 0ppo~ site side and yet nobody was hit Tha.
 fact that nobody was killed or injured
 is something everybody is wondering at and many regard it as good omen
 and hope that those who are responsl-
 ble for the conditions that obtain hi 1 Waterbury at the present time and for
 many weeks past will look at 1t in fh3a light and settle up the strike, declare
 all boycotts off and begin anew. Ono merchant said he thought somebody
 should remind the trolley company oE 1 the wisdom of such action and thak 1 probably good might come of it.
 But the thing didn't amount to much l anyway. It was nothing more than
 a whole lot of noise and dust without. any serious results. It was worth tho l shock to see the beautiful tableau the l disaDpearance of the riclxety scaffold- l ing revealed. block which is certain<. l ly an ornament to the city. But while l nothing serious resulted from the &C., 1 cident it proved the necessity of the strictest attention on the part of the 1 building inspector to all such struc~ llres and probably it will be an obiecv
 lesson, that all will profit by. If it l had occurred a quarter of an hour
 later at least a hundred people would 1 have been within reach of the timbersg A rNIrIl IpTY1T m yt,rNa,~v