The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-12
Eight Decd, 30 Missing In Disoster
 Brick Wolf Hits
 Condemned Housey
 92 Lived There

ASV AVhhs DSNs NOA -The brick wall of a flaming ice house crashed upon an ad- joining tenement house here early today killing or lnjuring a majority of the 92 persons who lived in the six-stOry building which residents said had been condemned ''yearB ago."
 While firemen and police emergency squads searched through debris in an effort to reach at least 30 persons still missing, a preliminary check showed eight known dead. and at least 25 injured. It appeared that almost an those still in the ruined brick building were injured or dead.
 The cries of some of the trapped could be heard at intervals. One man who had screamed almost con. stantly for many hours. ''get me out of here" was removed alive. A priest crawled through Q hole in one of the shattered brick walls and ad- ministered last rites to 3 persons whom he believed were beyond hope.
 Four Bodies Found
 A detective who also entered the wreckage told of finding four bodies.
 Four persons died in hospitals to which they were sent afte- five alarms sent fire and rescue equip. ment to the scene at Amsterdam Avenue and 1o4th Street on New York's upper West Side. The big ice plant of the Knickerbocker Ice Company, abandoned some 1S years, was wrecked by fire and ex- plosion, and 1t was the resT wala of the big building which crushed upon the tenement.
 The identified dead were:
 Frank Moorhead, fireman who was among the first to answer what appeared to be routine call ct il:46 P. M. last night.
 Anthony Biancardi, il, who was taken from debris piled high on the tenement's third floor and died ell- route to a hospital.
 Daniel Dorato. 2I, a tenant.
 Thomas Phillips, 70, a tenant.
 Nick Sloane, who had been pinned down for hours by Q beam, sad when he was freed that his wife and three children and his brother were in his apartment when the building caved in. Bremen had reached him by fol- lowing his constant cries of 'iget me out of here"
 Bleeds PrOfusely
 T don't know whether they ere dead or alive" he said. Bleeding pro. ftlsely, he was given a hypodermi0 and taken to Mother Cabr1na Hos- pital.
 Peter Lagatta, 6s, who left for work shortly before the crash, said his wife, Mary, 50, and his daughter, Julie, 26, were trapped on the second floor and probably were dead.
 Lagatta's son Joseph, 36, was not at home when the building collapsed He arrived shortly after the crash. He went immediately to his fathers nearby place of business and brought him back to the ruined house.
 Lagatta said the building had been condemned as long as eight yeazs ago but because of the war no one he'd been forced to move.
 we always knew t was . fire. trap" he said. but we had no place else to go."
 Last Rites Administered
 Father David Req, of St. Eliza- beth's Church, climbed ID a ladder into the wreckage to give the last rites to victims of the crash. Two of the persons he said apparently dead were believed to be Lagatta's wife and daughter.
 Ten-year-old Joseph Pepper, Jr., was one of the first to be carried out of the tenement by rescue workers. Barely conscious, he gasped that his mother, Eileen; his father, Joseph. Sr.; his brother, John, seven, and a three-weeks-old sister were still in the building. Then he lost conscious ness.
 Tales of the horror and confusion that followed collapse of the bsallding were told by neighborhood witnesses, many of whom were shaken by the ice-house blast.
 Most of them thought it vas an earthquake. Then they heard the cry of 'firel" In a matter of min- utes, thousands, many of them only partly clad, crowded into the street.
 Many Trapped in Beds
 Many of the victims were trapped in their beds as the blast sheared of the entire rear wall of the tenement and sent tons of brick, mortar and plaster into a massive pile fo debris two stories deep.
 One of the walls of the tenement and one of the ice house were stand ing at perilous angles and firemen feared that if they fell many of those still alive in the rubble might be kiIi-
 Fire officials said the fire expl0- sion was one of the worst in the history of the city, and at the same time were prepared to investigate the cause thoroughly. Police Commissioner Arthur Wal