The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-04-24


Orders while the beams and joists were
being placed. AS soon as my pack
was turned these ropes We're taken
down. At tha time four of the girders
were in position. With the weight of
the lumber upon them, unattached at
the top as they were, they began to
sway. One fell, knocking down the
others like o house of cards. The last
one struck the front wall and knocked
1t Into the street"
Cause of the Collapse.
After he had gone over the scene
carefully and questioned at length the
ironworkers, carpenters n others VINO
were in the vicinity of the collapsing
roof, Building superintendent O'Rourke
said: There seems to be no question
hat the collapse was due to the fact
that the guy ropes had been taken
away prematurely. Thus the Orders.
though anchored to the walls, were
free at the top. AS the pile of heavy
lumber was placed upon them one be-
gan to sway and knocked down the
others.
"There is no other explanation pos
sible, The walls are well constructed
I had them examined after arriving
here and found them plumb. That the
walls were perfectly sound is proved
by the fact that although the iron an
chors by which the Orders were held
to the masonry were pulled out when
the Orders fell, the walls remained
standing with the exception of that
section which was struck by one of the
falling Orders"
C. c. Lienau, in charge of the iron
construction on the building, refused to
make any statement. One of his sub
ordinates secuted the idea that the
glrders could have swayed without he
guy ropes and declared the collapse had
come because the Orders had been
overloaded with timbers. F
Weight Was Enormous.
Charles Stradling, foreman of the ma
sons, estimated the weight of the beams
and joists which had already been put
in position on the Orders at seven tons.
Others estimated it as high as nine
tons. The Orders weighed six tons
each.
Work a so far progressed on the
sixteen-room addition of the east front
of the old Bergen Street School that the
outer walls for the fourth story were
already in position. Above that was
to come merely q shallow attic, be-
meath the roof. The four great Orders
which were to support the roof were
placed across from the eastern to the
western wall. They were isosceles tri-
angles of steel, with apexes in the air
to support the roof. The bases had
been anchored to the wall by long o
of steel. The tops were free. The outer
walls are sixteen inches thick. Beams
were being put into position between
the Orders for the ceiling of the fourth
f1oor n rafters above for the roof.
When the first girder toppled it
knocked down the others in line like n
row of dominoes. The last knocked
a piece of the outer wall sixteen feet
across the street. Part of the wall re-
manned intact after striking the ground.
The heavy beams of the roof of the
fourth fioor cracked like matches be-
meath the weight.
Keeping back the crowd which filed
the street were Mounted Policeman
Hook. Bicycle Policemen Schroeder and
Rath, Policeman Thornton, all of the
Fourth Precinct, and the reserves from
the Fourth.
Investigation of the disaster is to be
pushed until responsibility for 1t is
fixed upon those believed to be guilty.