EIGHT DIE IN SEWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 408, 17 July 1928, Page 9

EIGHT DIE IN SEWER

SOMEONE BLUNDERED RIVER FLOODS TUNNEL BRAVE RESCUER PERISHES (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (United. Service) CHICAGO, Monday. Eight workmen were killed as the result of an amazing tragedy in a flooded server in Chicago. In the first, instance there was a mistake, and this was aggravated later by the refusal of an employee at the pumping station to close a flood-gate without a written order. The victims were among a number of men who had been engaged by a firm of contractors to repair a huge sewer at 125th Street. The foreman sent 30 men down the sewer at midnight. He then dispatched a messenger to the pumping statioi? to open a six-inch valve in order to drain the tube. The operator misunderstood the order and instead he opened the floodgate. This had the effect of releasing the whole current of the Calumet River into the sewer. The force of the was so tremendous that the* manhole-covers for a distance of a mile were blown into the air. Fifteen of the workmen managed to escape. The hero of the disaster was Carl Chiaro, who returned to the tunnel seven times and carried out a comrade each time. Returning for the eighth time he lost his own life. Firemen rushed to the scene and started pumping the water out of the sewer. One of them was electrocuted by a 20,000-volt cable, which shortcircuited, charged the water and made further rescue operations impossible for several hours.