Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-05-06

O'Clock, the three story brick building,
which has stood for 20 years at the cor
ner Of King and st. Paul streets. and has
peen lately occupied by w. c. Hoag and
c"mpanys toy shop. crumbed away like
house of cards. killing two people. seri-
ousy inJuring many more. ard causing
a loss which is estimated to be more than
$4,000 When 1t went, II completely wreck-
ed the Fairdeal garage which stood next
TO it and demolished that building as we'll
as wrecked several automobiles which
were In 1t. The catastrophe was the most
spectacular which has occurred in Bur-
lington in years and the fact that the
death list is not larger is due to a large
number of miraculous escapes.
! The dead are:
| Thomas ]. Stanley, agent for the pru-
dental Life Insurance company of ATS
Colchester avenue.
| Phillip *. Moriarity. 8 years of age. son
, of Mr.. and Mrs. John Moriarity of 1877
Pearl street
| The injured: y
Mrs Fred Davis, North street. injuries
to the head
John Moriarty. brother of Phillip seri-
ously injured about the head
| Harold Butler, 451 St. Paul street, badly
cut and bruised.
! George McCuen. fireman, Pine place.
severe injuries, to leg
| The noise and dust Of the first collapse
when the floors gave way gave it the
appearance of an explosion and a still
alarm was sent in to station one. This
was followed soon afterwards by a general
! alarm. There was no fire. however. but
the firemen did great work in rescuing
/ 10 in fI,n 1,,iI
were not more people inside when the
building gave way was due to the change
in time. There were not more than dozen
there when there would otherwise have
| been double that number.
! Those known to he in the building when
! it first began to crumble are l.. A. Laf-
lam of Church street. Charles Stewart
| Ccolored), North street; Cornelius Bar
low. Howard street: John Wilson, Bssel
street: Albert Superneau, Maple street ;
the Misses Cora King North Bend street; ;
Grace Stokes. Lafountain street: Cora
Darling. Helen Tucker, Maple street: Rose
Bezio. South Champlain street; Margaret
McCarty. Blodgett street: Helen Davis
and her mother. Mrs. Fred Davis of North
street. who is at the Mary Fletcher hos
pital.
Latham was in the basement when he
heard the sound of boards cracking and
the thought occurred to him that the
building was crumbing. He went ito the
third floor where the Misses McCarty
Mrs. Davis and Miss Davis were employ
ed and warned them. On the second floor
were the Misses Tucker. Darling. King
and Bezio. Miss Tucker was cut off from
retreat and went to a window and jump
ed from the second story. She was caught
by several men in the crowd and escaped
| in in hnr oil RI m
second floor were able to escape by the
stairway and were helped out by the
firemen and. others. Mrs. Davis. Helen
Davis and Miss McCarty went down
with the floor. Mrs. Davis was the
only one seriously injured. She was
buried under a mass Of debris. Captain
Peter Ashline and Joseph Gagnon Of sta
ton one found her and dragged her out
with difficulty. The men on the first floor
escaped without danger though some OF
them had to go through the window Mr..
Superneau has to use crutches, but he
went through the dense cloud of dust and
flying debris and made his escape.
w. C. Hoag stated to a Free Press rep
resentative that he had all Of the help
accounted for. Thffty-five were employed
! in the place and only 90 were working
| Monday. Only those whose names have
been mentioned were in the building at
the time of the crash.
The second crash took place about ten
minutes after the first The fremen from
all over the city had arrived by that
time. The men from station one were all
in the building and nearly everyone had
a narrow escape.
| Joseph Gagnon and Captain Ashline,
who had rescued Mrs. Davis, went back
to look for more. They were on the
second floor when the walls began to
sway. Ashine got out, but Gagnon
struck his head against something as he
was going down the stairs and was only
semi-conscious He could not see where
to go and lay down beside a pile of
| wreckage which had fallen the first time.
There he stayed while the roof and walls
caved in and afterwards got out unin-
| jured.
Chief Stockwell. Deputy Chief Carly,
Charles Ouimette and Thomas Finneran
were near the stairway. When the build
| ing began to come down around them
! they tried for the door, but could not
| get through that as II was blocked. They
| herded together in one of the southern
corners and waited for anything tina,
might come. but nothing happened and
they got through unframed.
On the second floor Jean Fortune OF
station one was confined to the south
end with all means of escape cut off ex-
| cept to jump He waited calmly until