The New York herald., 1922-05-23
WORKMEN PERISH
IN CONCRETE FLOOD
Two Men Buried as Form
Breaks at Wanaque Dam
Above Newark.
OTHERS SAVED BY BUCKET
Victims Plunged Forty Feet
and Engulfed Before Aid
Can Come.
OTHERS SAVED BY BUCKET

A gang of five men, thigh deep In
slowly solidifying concrete, were work.
ing with shovels yesterday morning
on top Of the huge dam at Wanaque,
among the steep green hills of north
ern New Jersey
Their Job was to smooth and work
the semi-liquid mass in which they
stood into firm section 40 feet long,
10 feet wide and 61s feet high, Of the
great barricade which is to form a
lake to supply Newark with water.
AS they worked buckets each laden
with hundreds of pounds of concrete
were swung into the long, wooden
sided trough in which they were
standing, deepening the sticky mix
ture.
Suddenly, as one of these receptacles
had dropped its load into the big mould,
there was a sharp crack. and one side
of the wooden form gave way. Instantly
a stream of concrete gushed down the
side Of the dam. Two of the worker s.
Pat Durkin and Larry Biggio, were
swept along with 1t. They fell forty
feet to the bottom of the ditch. and on
top of them. in a steady flood, came
twelve tons Of the amorphous concrete.
At the first crack of the breaking
timbers and the drag of the thick semi
fluid about their legs. two of the mon
grasped the bucket The other, Giuseppe
Castro. dropped with the concrete as
the other side of the mould gave way.
The flood of concrete buried him also.
A quick witted derrick man. seeing
the two clinging TO the bucket as the
concrete sucked at their legs. slowly
raised the bucket and swung the men
to safety on one side OF the ditch beside
the wall AS soon as the two. Berry
and Dominick, got to their feet they
dashed with Charles Anderson, the
foreman, to the bottom OF the pit be-
side the dam. After them in a reckless
rush came most of the 270 men at
work on the dam. including Neil c..
Hoidredge. chief engineer. One man
had been lost last November in the
treacherous sand above bedrock and
the workers were grimly determined no
more would die the death of suffoca-
tion. They went for the concrete with
streams of water. with picks. with
shovels, with flngernails.
Before Ave minutes had passed Castro
had been pulled out OF the solidifying
mass, hurt, but breathing. The men
who had gone down on the other side.
however. were deep below the surface.
and there was little room to work be-
tween the concrete wall and the sheath
ing Of metal alongside II. The men
tore their way into 1t. but 1t was nearly
an hour before the forms of their two
fellows were uncovered. Both were suf-
focated beyond hope of resuscitation.
The Wanaque dam had scored three
victims.
Durkin had wife in the nearby town
of Haskell. Biggio was unmarried and
was on his last weeks work on the dam.
He was studying for the priesthood and
had a Job as salesman for n tea con-
cern.
The first fatal accident on the big
dam was that In which Bill Graham. n
derrick operator. was engulfed while
standing on what seemed to be solid
earth. Men toiled forty-eight hours
steadily to save him. but he sank thlr-
ty-one feet below the surface and IL was
ten days before his body was found.