THE SAN FRANCISCO FATALITY.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 4, 5 January 1901, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO FATALITY.

A SHOCKING CATASTROPHE,

UNPARALLELED IN AMERICAN HISTORY. [By Telegraph—Press Association.] Auckland, last night. The San Francisco Chronicle of November 30 contains an account of the shocking catastrophe to the crowd' viewing the football match. The report says:— “One of the most distressing accidents San Francisco ever experienced, and one that for the horrible manner of fatalities has no parallel in the pages of the city’s history, resulted yesterday from the falling of portion of the roof of the San Francisco and Pacific Glass Works, and hurling, something like 100 men and boys to death or grievous injury. The building was finished but recontly, and as its roof was a place of vantage from which the football game was in full view, hundreds of men, old and young, and mere lads swarmed up the beams and braoes of the interior and out through the trap ventilators to the roof.

The glass works are surrounded by a high board fence, but this was an ineffective barrier over which the men rapidly climbed. The management of the works made an unsuccessful effort to keep out the intruders, and warned them not to go on the roof, as it was insecure, but no heed was paid to the protest, and in a little time the roof was black with spectators. The favorite position was the ridge of the narrow ventilator running on the seventy-two feet span of main, structure. The football game had been in progress about twenty minutes when the ventilating roof gave way for its entire length and WITH A TERRIBLE CRASH precipitated those upon it to the floor below. So sudden and complete was'the wreck that few, if any, of those astride the roof had an opportunity to save themselves. Covering nearly one-half of the ground space of the factory below is a glass furnace made of immense blocks of rock and fire bricks bound and held together by a network of posts, bands, and rods of iron. It had taken over a month to heat this furnace to the requisite temperature, and in its cauldrons were fifteen tons of molten glass. The outer fire bricks of THIS SEETHING INFERNO were so hot that a man's boots would be consumed in the time it would take him to run across the surface, and the iron binding rods were of corresponding temperature. Upon this fiery furnace fell nearly one-half of the men precipitated through the roof. In a flash their clothing caught fire and WITH THE SCREAMS AND GROANS of the unfortunate victims came the odour of burning flesh and clothes. In their death agony some helpless victims struggled, rolled, or crawled from the furnace, while others unable to assist themselves were removed by willing aid of those who quickly arrived at the scene of the disaster. So fiery was the furnaoe that the planks and pieces of sheet iron had to be used to drag some of the victims from their positions in whioh they were being LITERALLY GRILLED ALIVE. Those who struck the floor had but a small advantage of those who came in oontact with the furnaoe, for the floor was of unyielding brick. The writhing, moaning, struggling mass, in which the dead and living were intermingled, caused STRONG MEN TO SHUDDER and only' the best nerved could continue the work of relief. When it was once begun fourteen persons, mostly young boys, were killed, and over eighty were moro or less injured, many seriously. Some of those who died expired on the spot from their injuries and others died in the Hospitals.