The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1922-02-01
MOVIE ROOF COLLAPSES
In CITY OF WASHINGTON
Toll Of Disaster Reaches Total OF iO7
Killed and Many More Injured. Roof
Gives Way Under Heavy Weight OF
Snow.


Snow.
Washington, Jan. Seventeen
persons at least are believed to have
Deen killed and scores injured tonight
in the collapse under the weight of
TWO feet of snow on the roof OF the
hnickerbocker theater, a motion pic
ture house located in the heart Of
WaShin2ton's fashionable nothwest
section.
TWO hours and a half after the
crash, which occurred about nine
crash, which occurred about nine
the number Of dead and injured was
wholly lacking as we'll as estimates
OF the number of those in the thea
ter at the timc-these estimates rang
ing from $50 to 500, although the thea
ter was one Of the finest motion pic
ture houses in the city and had accom-
modations for more than 1000 specta-
tors.
The names Of the dead had not been
ascertained by the. police up to mid
night with two exceptions. A Miss
Sostley died. Of injuries at the Office
OF a nearby physician. The other
known dead is Mrs. B. o. Kovall.
All was confusion for hours after
the crash, while police firemen, ma
rines from the nearby barracks and
soldiers from Walter Reed military
hospital strove to burrow beneath the
mass Of debris and bring forth those
buried hereunder.
Scores had been removed from
the edges of the debris and hurried to
check up on the number of those talk
en- to the hospitals or on whether any
or how many had died after reaching
the hospitals.
Every fire station in the city was
called upon to. send its crew to the
scene and the collection Of fire fight.
ing apparatus only added to the con
fusion. >,o.1,' N,Y.v.i .r-a
With the arrival Of the mariaes,
however, order began to be restored.
emergency hospitals were set In the
[
nigh officials OF the government.
F1nding the roof was composed of
steel and concrete almost immovable
and impenetrable, the street rail
way companies Of the city and the
Washington navy yard were called up
on to supply acetylenc torches. With
these more rapid progress was made
and 1t was hoped that within a few
hours it might be possible to reach
those buried beneath the debris.
Attaches Of the British embassy re-
ported at midnight that check had
been made Of the staff Of that embassy
and one found to have been in attend
ance at the theater. Belief was ex-
pressed in some quarters that the
final list of injured and possibly that
Of the dead would contain names of
well known persons, inasmuch as tho
theater was situated in a section Of
the city in which many government
oflcials live
The management OF the theater,
which was owned and operated by
the Harry M. Crandall Company, own
er OF a number Of theaters in the city,
declared that the building only re-
Gently had been inspected and ap-,
proved and that the collapse Of the
roof only could have been caused by
the tremendous weight imposed by the
heaviest snowfall that has visited
Washington since 1899.
The roof fell with such force as
to drive three concrete pillars through
the orchestra floor, up near the stage;
7 however, Its force was arrested. so
that the platform successfully acted
as buffer. For this reason, 1t was
said, several fthc musicians escaped.
Washington, Jan. 30.--Omcial po-
lice records placed carly today the
known dead In the Knickerbocker
theatre disaster at 107 elimination aof
duplicated names brought the final
total down from the unofficial peak of
112 at which the toll of the catastrophe
was placed late last night.
The list OF injured stood at 1874 with
IA listed as Seriously injured"
( The official list. according to the
authorities. contained the names OF
Y all those whose bodies had been re-
covered up to midnight from the ruins
L. 81 - 4.g a III