THREE HURT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 302, 21 December 1937, Page 8

THREE HURT.

FLOOR COLLAPSED,

LUCKY TO BE ALIVE. ONE HELD IN WIRE. SYDNEY, December 17. Three men had remarkable, escapes from deatli or serious injury when a floor on which they were working collapsed. Entwined in a twisted reinforcing wire like a fly in a spider's web, one was held suspended and had to be cut free bv workmen using files. The other two crashed with a mass of wet concrete 10 feet to the floor below. All were taken to Sydney Hospital suffering from bruises, abrasions and shock, and were detained for observation. Half a dozen men were engaged in filling and packing concrete into the wired cradles which form the basis of a new floor. The job wan about three parts completed when, without any warning, the whole floor sagged with a terrific tearing sound. One man jumped clear, but the three who were on the floor itself had no hope of reaching safety. "Like Fly in Web." Those who fell with the floor were: Jack Caves (28), Phillip Bright (29), Stanley Howe (34). Workmen were amazed to find their comrades conscious, and while the Central District Ambulance was summoned, preparations were made to have them extricated from the debris, and lowered to the Castlereagh Street road level. Bright, who iva« entangled in his downward flight in the iron strands used for reinforcing the concrete, said he felt as if he "was never going to hit the bottom. "As a matter of fact," lie added, drily, on hie way to the hospital in the ambulance, "I didn't. I was caught like a fly in a spider's web."

Caves said he never realised that 16 feet could provide so much travel. "It seemed like 60 feet," he eaid, wiping wet cement from his eyes and hair.

Howe, holding a bleeding knee, said he gave himself a poor chance of having Christmas dinner when he felt the floor slip away with him.

By the time the ambulance arrived a tremendous crowd had gathered at the busy intersection of Market and Caetlereagh Streets.

Mr. Anderson, the foreman for John Grant and Son, the contractors, said the mishap was due to a defect in an upright supporting the structure on which the floor was being built. "There must have been a hidden fault in this and it wouldn't take the weight of cement," he said. 0

Jack Router, who narrowly escaped joining his comrades, was about to walk on to the floor when it collapsed. He jumped clear—on to a rusty nail which penetrated his gumboot and entered the sole of his right foot.