A FOREMAN'S- STORY. HOW SOME OF THE PEOPLE ESCAPED WITH THEIR LIVES.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 341, 9 February 1889, Page 3

A FOREMAN'S- STORY. HOW SOME OF THE PEOPLE ESCAPED WITH THEIR LIVES.

Augustus E. Koscup was foreman of the first and second floors of the silk mill. His statement is as follows: "It was about 5.20 when i went to the secoi\d storoy to turn on the eloctric lights. After I had done this I stood looking 1 out for about ten minutes. Suddenly I heard a loud rushing" noise, which I thought was a cyclone, The building then shook. I was standing in the southern end of the room and before I could look out of a window I felt the building sink. Quick as lightning the portion of the room that I was in went down. The girls rushed about crying and screaming and calling for help. They did not realise what was taking place. It seemed to me as if the centre ot the building was struck first. " I cannot describe the scene. It was awful. I could not do anything and could not think of what I should do. Our end of the building went down first, and while the floor was sinking it seemed to me as if the girls in the other room were on top of a hill. That was the way it impressed me. While we were going down I saw other portions of the floor fall. In a minute all was over. The scroaming of the girls was heartrending. I was kneeling down under heavy timbers and held fast by my foot. I could move every other part of ray body except my leg. I reached down with my knife and cut tho shoe off of my foot. In this way I became loosened and managed to arise, and amid the falling beams and bricks I succeeded in escaping. ' I got out of the ruins on the eastern side of the building, but how I do not know. I called to the girls as loudly as I could. They were all terribly excited, and I never witnessed anything so awiul in my life. Many of them heard me and worked themselves toward me. At some places it seemed as if the floor was closed as a solid mass, and the girls would creep around this, crawl over machines and creep on their hands and knees until they got to the opening where I was. The machines saved many from being crushed to death as they left a space between the floor and the debus to ciawl out. 1 belie\e that fully one hundred persons escaped with me. I remember seeing them run acioss the commons in different directions to their homes. Some ran away a short distance and then returned to the ruins. "The entire building was down. The girls came back to look for their brotheis and sifters or friends. We could hear the moans and shrieks of those impiieoned in the inina. The rain was pouring down and all round wa3 dark. I was badly bruised and hurt about the body, head and limbs, and went home after I saw that I could do nothing. Between 250 and 300 operatives were in the building. About 4 o'clock I allowed sixteen girls to go home. All the fiooi-s were in operation. The report that 100 went homo at 4 o'clock is not true."