The Washington herald., 1922-02-01
FREIGHT SHED
FALLS UNDER
SNOW BURDEN
Seven Workmen Barely
Escape Death at the
B. & o. Station.

Seven men narrowly cscaped
oeath late yesterday afternoon
wnen a shed. 400 feet in length and
valued at $4,000, collapsed i-to a
mass OF tangled wood, slate and
orck under a neavy burden Of
snow at the Baltimore and Ohio
Kailroad freight station. First and
Florida avenue northeast.
A short time before the crash !.
T. Mathews, 223 S street northwest,
foreman. accompanied by six work :
men. E. J. Quinn, r. W. Richards.
salvatore Galipo. n. Z. Kelly. 3. b.
Dyson and Thomas Venerable. had
Ieft the h1-fated building. whore
the outgoing frelgat WIS handled.
and gore to an adj j,.n az building
10 assist In relieving the conges-
tion caused by the recen. tle-up in
incoming freight.
Building Cossidered Safe.
Although a considerable amount
Of snow was still banked upon the
roof of the building, which was
erected In 1904, il was considered
safe, after an examination of all
Of the buildings at the station by
ii. G. Zepp, general division fore
man. and one of the company's en-
gineers, yesterday morning.
Furniture Damaged.
The only freight damaged as a
result of the crash. according to
officials of the railroad company,
was one consignment of household
furniture. the value of which they
were unable to ascertain.
A freight tie-up. practically par
alyzing all outgoing and incoming
freight over the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad lines. may result
from the accident. All sheds were
ordered closed by Capt. Keefe, of
the Eighth police precinct, until
proper inspection of the remaining
buildings could be made.
The division superintendent of the
railroad, whose "ffice is located In
Baltimore, was notified last night,
and is expected to arrive in thls
city tomorrow to supervise repairs
and arrange for freight shipments.
The ill-fated building usually is
the scene of much activity uni1 ~
o'clock in the afternoon. che time
when freight shiPr,Ents arc no
longer received and prior to that
time hundreds of persons are COM
tinually passing through it !
90 are Department Called.
Fearing that fire might sweep
the debris as the result OF torn and
barred electric wires, an alarm was
sounded. No one was in the build
ing at the time of the crash, and
since all danger ended when the
last of the crumbling walls fell IL
the ground. the firemen were soon
relieved Of duty.
During the night employees of the
company and policemen stood watch
over the remaining buildings and re-
fused admission to all as a precau-
ton against further accident.
Il had gone to the general offices
for few minutes" said Mathews.
who has been general foreman OF
the station for eleven. years, land
was Just about to return to look
for a man. when l saw someone with
whom ] wished to speak. Just as
/ paused, 1 saw the wreck. / imme-
diately called a roll to check I'd op
the employees Work being light at
present. only forty are on the pay
roll. and not one was missing.
Beside Falling Bricks.
1T was miraculous! Richards, a
truck loader. 22 p street northeast,
who was looking up, simply stood
beside the falling bricks. absolutely
.ntouched. had to cali to him to
move away" 80.
Il see no reason for the fall OF
this building" said Mai. Cary
Browne who with Col Cha rl.. T.