New-York tribune., 1905-08-10
ALBANY TO INVESTIGATE.
Commission of Non-Residents WaH
Place Blame for Disaster.

''IC DtUHt |of Deo"o''''
Albany. Aug s-The collapse of the John C Myers
Company department store yesterday. which result
ed in the death of thirteen persons and probably the
fatal injury of two others will be investigs ted by
a special commission. This afternoon, when the
searchers announced their Relief that no more
bodies were in the ruins Mayor Gaus called meet
ing of the heads of the city departments. and the
following committee selected inquire into the
cause of the disaster and report where to place
the blame: William A. Cattell, civil engineer OF
New-York; William r. Hanrahan. contractor and
builder of Schenectady, and John Magill. mason
and contractor OF Troy. Mr.. Cattel has been as
sistant to John B. Parsons. chief engineer of the
New-York subway, and has had experience in in
vestigations similar that to be undertaken here.
The commission win begin work tomorrow. and
report directly to the Mayor
John Dyer, jr., the contractor who digging
a subcear and Snoring up the part of the structure
which fell has published request to the people of
Albany to suspend judgment until after thorough
investigation
The discovery that the thirteen bodies already
taken ort will probably for all the victims
of the accident is a surprise. until this after
ii believed that at least a dozen more
manged forms buried beneath the ruins still
filing the chasm in the of the building. So
the wreckers that bodies We're
there that they suspended their search and de-
voted their attention to demolishing the brick
walls which overhung the debris and threatened at
any minute to fall This work be pushed
be removed until day two later.
OF those I'm the hospital. Helen Donahue is
believed to be the point Of death. and Mrs
William Borst, of Window Mimi, shopper has
only an even chance of recovery II is believed
that all the other injured fifty in number will get
well. Tonight all the employees of the firm
accounted for except half dozen cash boys, who
are believed to be their acations.
The small number of deaths, small when it is con-
sidered that nearly one hundred persons went down
with the wreck. is accounted for by the fact that
scarcely any of the brick walls fell and the debris
consists mostly of wooden tmbers and plaster. with
only an occasional iron girder. One of these iron
beams crushed the life out of four girls.
list of the dead follows:
BJLMAN Miss Minnie c
EASTMAN Miss Katherin. NJ
EBNER. Miss Grace 3.
FITZGERALD Michael J.
KELLY. Miss Winfred
LEONARD Francis P
MALONE, Helen.
MAVOY. Miss Mary
POWERS John f.
SHARPE, Miss Alice l..
SPANNBACER. Miss Theresa.
sPRINKs. L.
WHITBECK. Miss Anna ell Of Albany
Now that the first shock Of the horror is past the
people of Albany have begun to ask who is
sponsibe. Mayor Gaus. Chief Higgins Of the Fire
Department and Commissioner Cantine of the De-
partment of Public Safety believe that the acci-
dent was caused directly by workmen excavating
beneath the basement floor. who undermined one
Of the key brick piers in the centre of the build
ing. Their belief is generally shared. Mayor
Gaus said this morning:
II sny person has been guilty of Of negligence to
Every guilty person will be prosecuted as soon as
we have placed the responsibility for this disaster
which is the worst of its kind that has ever be-
fallen the city.
Commissioner Cantine said:
Those who have charge of the work will have to
explain
The work under way when the building collapsed
was in charge Of John Dyer, jr OF the thtrty-one
men employed by him the building, every one
escaped As nearly all of them were In or under
the basement in the very centre of the structure.
their escape is almost miraculous. Stories of the
survivors. however. show that those the base
ment floor. where the building first gave
cetved warning which enabled all except or two
of them to reach place of safety before the four
upper floors came crashing down.
All yesterday Mr. Dyer refused 10 reporters,
ard would not talk about the accident. This
ing he made the following statement:
had the contract for the work that was being
done at-the Myers store. We enlarging the
for the use Of the employees of the store | had
In the building. Part Of the lockers and cloak
room were completed have had men at work
There excavation done but none that know
of that % Would & weaken the wails rs f9uld not say
Of our work gave way. and cannot account for
We were snoring up part of the walls and strength
ening them. ! did not consider the work extra
hazardous, but took great precaution against
accident as will he shown. We had been lacking
up part of the walls The building of course
is a succession Of old buildings that have been re
modelled from time to time and have been built
onto. Had the east wall and the side walls given
had the building collapsed other than in
! the centre. | believe loss of life would have
| been much greater cannot understand what
prevented the east wall from falling.
G. L. Daggett, one of the competent men In
| the State. supervising the work for He
! on the floor that is on level with James-st when
| the building collapsed
He was hemmed in by falling debris but fort
unately escaped with few scratches on the arms
After being released he inlmediat tely got work
! and assisted in rescung three persons from the
building l am now Interested mainly in clearing
| out the wrecked building and getting people
out and not prepared 20 make n specific state
nlent to the calamity. feel sure. however. that
| il will be shown later that il through no
fault of mine that the accident occurred II is
one OF these unfortunate accidents that cannot be
very well accounted for
NO CRIME TO BORROW" AUTO"