A BROOKLYN HORROR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 124, 3 June 1885, Page 4

A BROOKLYN HORROR.

A Building Falls, Burying the Inmates.

Brooklyn, May s.—Shortly after 9 o'clock this morning there was a crash at 55 Atlantic avenue, Brooklyn, and the people on looking up from tho streets saw that the roof of the building had fallen in, and that a portion of the walls had toppled. They could hear the screams of the people injured, and it seemed but a moment when a volume of smoke rolled up, showing that the building had taken fire. Hundreds ot people, men, women, and girls, wore at work at tho various branches of business carried on in the building, which covered considerable ground, having wings which extended through from Atlantic to State streets. As soon as the crash of the falling roof was heard, hundreds of those employed in the building endeavoured to make their way out by every avenue of escape, and some who were tho last to reach tho street appeared with begrimed faces and blood streaming from their wounds, which they had received from the falling timbers. The excitement in the neighbourhood became very great, and in a short time the wives of the men who were known to be working in the building and the parents of tho girls who were employed, blocked tho streets. Three alarms of lire were sent out, and the services of ajarge .number of the police had to bo ca'led in to koep the peoplo cut of the way of danger. It was reported at first that about one hundred girls, who were employed in the Milo Hynes Bolting Works, which was oa tho top floor where the roof fell in, were killed ; but it appears that most of the girls mado thoir escape by climbing on the roofs of tenement houses.

The buildings were occupied by 30 small manufacturers, and thero were abont 500 men and women employed therein. It was a five-story, erected 27 years ago. The woodwork burned like tinder. When the firemen arrived they found many young women at the windows screaming wildly for help, their retreat being cut off, and tho firemen quickly ran up ladders, but the girls wtre hemmed in, and many 101 l back into the flames before help could reach them. The character of the building hindered the efforts of the firemen.

It was ascertained that the engineer of the Factory, Daniel J. Lowiy, was one of tho victims. He was killed by the falling of the left wall.

The cause of the fire was the overturning of the boilers of a soap factory on the second floor.

Tho west wall of tho middle wing on Atlantic Avenue had settled, nnd workmen were screwing it up with jacks. The middle jack had been screwed up too high, and it was lowered, when the whole weight of the wall came upon the two jacks at the end, and it fell with a crash.

Ten or twelve have been taken out severely injured.

Three bodies have been taken from the ruins burned beyond recognition. Chief Livingston thinks there .were at least twenty-five people in the ruins; maybe more.

The loss is estimated at §300,000 ; insurance, unknown.

The scene at the police station, where tho dead boriieß which were removed from the ruins were conveyed, was a pitiful one. A bedquilt wes thrown over the bodies, and many called to see if they could not recognise the undistinguishable mass, All failed, however, and all statements were simply guesswork. The legs of one of the bodies were burned to the knees, and the two arms to tbe elbows, The other bodies wfro merely a mass of black cinders. The bodies are all those of men. When the father of the missing boy, John McGrath, went to the police station, he fainted twice, and when he was able, gave vent to the most piteous moans. "O, Sergeant," he cried, " do tell me my poor boy, my only support, is not dead Ob, bring him back to me," The man wa. getting deliiiius, and had to be removed. His son perished beyond doubt. Numbers of women and girls came during the day looking fqr lost relatives. To-night Detective D^ly arrested Frank W. Miller, a Lquse-.mavor, on complaint of Coroner Manninger, for orimlnal carelessness, for improperly putting girders atid posts in the building at 55 Atlantic Avenue, thereby causing the walls to fall, thus causing many deaths. The full loss of life will probably not be known for some days, till the dcftris is cleared away. The " World" puts tho casualty list at ovp. thirty, tho '«?un" at sixteen, t-tg <'Tribune" at eighteen, and the " Times" says it is unknown.