The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-03
DASHED To DEATH
IN MASS OF STEEL
SKELETON BUILDING FELL
STRUCTURE HAD REACHED
HIGHT OF ELEVEN STORIES.

Seven Persons Known to Have Been
KiIIed-AbOut Score Were In
jured, and Eight or Ten Missing
Are Believed TO BE Dead-WithOut
Warning and While WOrkmen
Swarmed Upon 1t the Mighty
Structure Gave Way.
New York, March 2.-Seven persons
are known to have been killed. about
a score injured and eight or ten, all
of whom are believed to be dead, are
missing through the collapse to-day
of the steel skeleton of the Hotel OAR
lington, a thirteen story apartment
house in course of erection at Fifty
seventy, West, Forty-sixth street.
The steel framework had been erect
ed as far as the eleventh floor. and
the structure was swarming with iron
workers, masons and laborers. when.
without an instants warning, the up
per floor sagged and collapsed, and
the whole structure fell with a crash
that was heard for blocks, and shook
all the buildings in the vicinity.
A portion of the steel frame fell upon
the rear of the Hotel Patterson. on
West Forty street, crushing in
the wall of the dining room, and kill
ing Mrs. Ella Lacey Storrs, the wife
of Frank Storps: a wealthy resident
of Rye, Westchester county, as she was
sitting at luncheon with the wife of
Rev. DR.. Minot Savage, who escaped
unhurt.
The other bodies SO far re-
covered are those of Frederick
Morrills, foreman Of the Roe
bling Construction Company; Far
rell S. Fagin, derrick man, and two
unidentified men, apparently laborers.
Searching for Bodies.
Among those missing is Frank ]. Alli-
son of the Allison Realty Company, the
builders of the hotel, who is known to
have been in the building when it fell.
Efforts to recover the bodies of the
dead and rescue those imprisoned in
the wreck, were begun by the firemen
Immediately after the crash, and the
work of searching the ruins will be
continued all night.
Owing to the enormous mass of metal
wreckage days may elapse before all
the bodies are recovered.
The cause of the disaster generally
accepted is the overlooking of the
floors. Foreman James Halpin, in
charge of the iron workers, stated that
there was large quantity of cement
and other building material on the
fifth floor, and that on the ninth floor
were eighty-th iron beams which
were to have been used in constructing
the remaining floors of the building.
That criminal carelessness is charge
able to somebody is shown by the fact
that the building department had
placed repeated violations against the
building, the last one being filed to-day,
at the instance of Inspector Charles
French, because the side walls were
more than two stories in advance of the
front walls and the floor beams were
not properly bolted and tied"
In spite of this and previous warn
ings, those responsible for the construc-
ton of the building went ahead, re-
CARELESS of consequences.
struck Adjoining Buildings.
Adjoining the collapsed building on
the west is the four-story brown stone
residence of Harold Brown. Some Of
the huge iron beams struck the side
of the house and stove holes in the
wall and roof and dislodged part of
the brown stone front. which was
thrown to the street. The occupants
escaped uninjured.
On the east side is a house occupied
by A. walpole cragie as a school for
boys. The pupils had gone home to
luncheon a few minutes before the
crash occurred. Some Of the beams
struck the house, tearing OF a portion
Of the roof and smashing holes IN the
side walls
Mrs storrs, whose husband Is IN
Continued On Ninth Papes