A TERRIBLE DISASTER.-FALL OF AN ICE-HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA.-EIGHT KILLED AND ELEVEN INJURED.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1307, 16 April 1874, Page 3

A TERRIBLE DISASTER.-FALL OF AN ICE-HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA.EIGHT KILLED AND ELEVEN INJURED.

Philadelphia, February 13.—About 9.30 o'clock this morning a terrible disaster occurred at tha lager beer brewery of Henry Muller. The establishment was but recently erected. It was a brick building, three stories and a-half high, and 150 feet long by 50 feet wide. The eastern portion of the |

building comprised the vaults, fermentingroom, ice-house, and cooling-room. The vaults w rere iv the basement, thefermentingroom on the first floor, the ice-house in the third story, and the cooling-room above. In the other parts of the building were storage rooms for malt, hops, etc. The ice-house was constructed with a capacity of 1,700 tons, and for some time past men hcive been engaged putting ice into it. Up to this morning about 1,400 tons had been packed away. At the hour named a terrible crash startled the neighborhood, and it was soon discovered that the eastern portion of the brewery had fallen in. The weight of the ice had evidently caused the walls to bulge, and then the whole building fell with a fearul crash, the noise of which was heard for a square around. There were upwards of forty men employed in the brewery at the time, fifteen of whom were engaged packing ice. There were also carters and others at work about the premises. The falling ice, etc., crushed in the large mash tubs, containing above 2,000 barrels of beer, which poured with great rapidity into the cellar, almost drowning those who were attempting to escape. Around the ruins were gathered thousands of excited people, many of whom were women, who ran hither and thither, wringing their hands and screaming in the excess of their grief. The presence of entire families, fearful of the safety of their bread-winner, and rending the air with their cries of. distress, added much to the general confusion. When the walls gave way and the huge structure came down upon the unfortunate men, casting them with the ice, bricks, and debris down

through the floors into the sub-cellar beneath, their shrieks and moans were something appalling. A number were killed outright, and others escaped death by scarcely a hair's breadth. To add to the confusion and almost render the disaster more horrible in its details a small frame house at the eastern end of the building, took fire. Willing hands applied themselves to the task and extinguished the flames before they had gained much headway. Immediately after the accident the entire force of police reserves, with large details from the different districts under Captain Curry, and assisted by many workmen from the neighbouring breweries, arrived and commenced clearing away the debris and digging for these beneath the ruins. The living were so tightly wedged in between blocks of ice and beams as to be unable to extricate themselves, and by their smothered cries the operations of those who came to their rescue were guided. Some of the unfortunates waited patiently the ellbrts of their rescuers, while others groaned terribly, calling on death to release them from their sufferings. One man was observed in a fearful condition, wedged in between huge pieces of joist, with one plank across his stomach holding him in a vice-like captivity; but his jiosition was such that it was somo time before he was extricated. Restoratives were convened to those were alive, and whom it was possible to recover. The first man brought up dead, named Allen, was crushed and mangled to a horrible extent. In all seven men were killed, and eleven severely injured. Five of them are expected to survive.