The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-12-13
l5Missing tn Tenement Bubble
2l Vistinas Listed Deod: 40 Injured
 Dead End Kids
 Bros of Stortins
 He'll oF a Fire


 New York, Dec. lS--(UP) All hope of removing any more victims alive from the rubble of a shattered tene- ment house on New York's upper West Side was aban- doned today, indicating a final death toll of perhaps 36 per sons in one of the worst build ing disasters in the city's history.
 Oficials ordered the dangerous front part of the building, which was still standing, demolished. The rear of the six-story structure, which housed o5 persons, collapsed early yesterday when it was struck by the falling wall of Q fire-swept adjoining ice-house, burying the tenement dwellers under Q three. story pile of bricks, plaster and masonry.
 Police said that the search for the bodies of IS persons still missing and presumed dead will be con- tinued after the tottering front of the building, making rescue opera tions dangerous, Is demolished.
 Twenty-one persons were listed as known dead In the disaster and more than % injured as two dead enc kids who hragged that they had started ''one hell of fire" were held on arson charges.
 Anxious relatives stall lined the street outside the building almost 36 hours after the building was crushed beneath the falling nrlck wall of an adjoining abandoned iGe house. The wall toppled as . re. suit Of a fierce blaze in the ice house.
 Rsssusrs Tel EA RalA
 They watched through the night as Ire and police rescue crews toiled in rain under the glare e searchiights. They were still there when the das dawned cool and clear and fresh rescue crews re- lieved the weary night men.
 The ruible and debris was packed so hard within the shell of the tenement that rescue workers made slow progress in clearing it away.
 Since the building crurnpled on the o5 residents of the 22-family house early yesterday, rescuers had been painstakingly slowly, removing the debris with their hands so as not to jar any further masses of brick on any of the victims below.
 Until late yesterday, the rescuers could hear the gradually weaken ing cries for help from men, women and children still alive in the ruins. But by early today no further sounds were heard and Fire Captain Timothy P. Guihne said he believed all those trapped had perished.
 Arsonisss Appear In Court
 Meanwhile, Joseph McCabe, l3, and Joseph Flo, 10, members of slum neighborhood gang which often had started fires in the six- story ice house just for the fun of | it" were scheduled to appear in childrens court today on an arson | charge.
 CaDt. Thomas V. Hannigan said 1 four boys admitted they got into | the ice house by climbing to the roof of the blasted tenement and dropping to the roof of the adjoining | building. They broke into a room immediately under the roof where | detectives found paper. wood. matches and candles. Hannigan | said the boys left the building the same way after their ring leader remarked, "tnis ought to make one hell of a fire"
 As they fled, with fire engines already drawing up in front of the building, they bragged to other neighborhood kids, We did that" Then they took q street car to their | home on West l76th Street. six blocks away.
 Chief Fire Marshal Thomas Bro- phy identified the boys as McCabe. Elio. Thomas Lyons and William yDardah. Lyons and Dahdah, both | II. were released in their parents custody and ordered to appear to- day as material witnesses.
 Collapse Of Roof Starts Disaster
 Tn his official report to Mayor William F. O'Dwyer, Brophy said the cause of the disaster was the collapse of the heavy, concrete roof of the ice house which sent one wall crashing into the tenement house. He said the fire started by the boys under the ice house roof Wednesday afternoon caused it to collapse.
 He said he had questioned num- erous witnesses, none of whom re. ported hearing any explosion which was believed at first to have caused the tragedy.
 "Collapse of the building was due to the weakening of the roof due to the fire which apparently had been burning intensely for some time before it's discovery, resulting in the roof caving in and pushing out the north wall"
 Firemen first had been called to fight a fire in the Ice house at sos P. M. Wednesday. They thought the fire was extinguished but were called again near mid- night. Firemen poured tons Of water on the roofs structure and it was believed that this might have swelled the cork insulation on the 24-inch thick walls which became 50 weakened they collapsed. Com missioner of Building and Housing Newton T. Grunlet said tbere were no structural defects in the Ice plant. He said the wrecked tene- nanf sghad A fine clear reCord"