UNUSUAL DISASTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 122, 27 April 1925, Page 5

UNUSUAL DISASTER.

PART OF BUILDING COLLAPSES FOUR WORKMEN KILLED. SYDNEY, April 24. With a roar like thunder the upper portions of a seven-storeyed building in course of erection in Swanston street in the city collapsed shortly before knocking-off time tOrday. A large number of workmen who were engaged upon it were overwhelmed. Four men were dead when extricated and fifteen injured. The building was being erected for the British-Australian Tobacco Company, and was to have been finished in the next two months. Exports are mystified as to the cause of its collapse. The fire brigade was first on the scene, and escape ladders were run up against .still quivering walls. Firemen rescued those who could Tie seen, while workmen made a feverish search for those of their mates who were buried. Two bodies were recovered by six o’clock, and another shortly after. Little warning of the collapse was given. On the fourth and third floors and the roof there were dozens of labourers, carpenters, whitewashers and painters. Pay envelopes were being passed around, when suddenly there was heard a slow, grinding sound, and the men saw the wall bulging outward, then contracting again, after which it fell like a sheet in a wind. A rush for the exits followed. Those who rushed to the front were lucky, while those who backed were mostly caught. The wall collapsed like a concertina. The other walls then folded in and the ceiling fell in a shower of debris. Giant concrete pillars gave way under the strain of tons of falling concrete, much of which pierced the fourth floor. Large crowds which quickly gathered hampered the work of the ambulances and police, and a special squad was rushed to the scene to prevent people from entering the building. At eight o’clock an architect who examined the standing walls reported that there was imminent danger of the floor upon which the rescuers were at work collapsing, but it. was only after much argument, and when it was pointed out that the unfortunate men were oertuinly dead and that forty other lives would be in momentary danger, that the met would agree to leave off the search till daybreak.

After the workmen left, another search was made by a small party, and the remaining body was recovered at 10 o’clock.

The names of the dead are: —George Marshall, aged 48, whitewashing contractor, of Fitzroy; Reginald Shuw, aged 22, of Carlton; Victor Ingham, aged 35, of Nortbcote; Edgar Lydiard, aged 40, of Brunswick.

The first three men were married, but little is known at present regarding Lydiard.

Sensational disclosures are expected a$ the inquest.—Press Association.