TWO WORKERS KILLED

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10825, 23 March 1932, Page 3

TWO WORKERS KILLED

Accident During Demolition of Building.

SUDDEN COLLAPSE. Wellington March 23. Two workmen were killed and four others injured when part of the old Government Life Insurance Building in Brandon Street, now in process of demolition collapsed yesterday afternoon. Several tons of debris had to bo shifted before the lost body was recovered, and during the operations a man was injured by a falling brick. The victims were:

Dead.—Harry Byford, single, age and address unknown, but believed to have lived in the main Karori Road: Richard Harold Wilson, single, aged 19, resided at 9, Caprere Terrace, Melrose.

Injured.—Leonard Walter Lang, married, aged 39 residing at 15, Apuka Street, Brooklyn; fractured elbow and shock, James Summers, single, aged 28, residing at 58. Ira Street, Miramar: head injuries and shock. Alexander Donald, single, aged 38, residing at 40 Abel Smith Street: bruises and shock: Lewis Ham, aged 36, residing at 54, Ira Street, Miramar; hip injuries and shock.

Those who were working on the job state that there was no warning of impending disaster. A the rear of the building on the level of the first floor stood a large and very sub-stantially-built strongroom. A gang had been working in that vicinity for some days and was making preparations to demolish the stout 12in. walls of the strongroom. The walls had been deeply scarfed all round and the roof was strongly “tommed” to prevent anything in the way of a preliminary fall. At 2.50 p.m. there was a sudden lound crack, the thud of crashing masonry and a cloud of dust. Where formerly stood the strongroom was an ugly heap of jagged masonry and brickwork. It was known at once that lives were imperilled, as five men had been engaged in and about the room. Fortunately, some of the men were outside the walls, otherwise all must have been crushed to death by the weight of the masonry in the walls and roof of the strongroom.

One of the injured men, Mr Summers was pushed over the edge of wha.t remained of the floor and fell about 15ft. to the ground. He was severely injured and was practically unconscious. He was taken to hospital by the free ambulance. Mr Lang, builder, of Brooklyn, and foreman of the work then proceeding, had an arm broken and received lacerations of the face from falling masonry. He too, was despatched to the hospital with Mr Donald, who was badly bruised and had his hack injured. Mr Byford was buried by the debris on the outer edge of tlte wall. He was released in an hour, but was severely crushed and died on the way to hospital. The youth, Richard Wilson, son of Mr Harold Wilson, was buried alive. Wilson, who was a member of the Poneke Football Chib’s third fifteen, was serving an apprenticeship to the building trade with Mr Lang, and when the latter became a foreman for the contractor on the building under demolition he secured a job for the young man about a month ago. It is understood that Wilson was standing out ou one of the walls away from the strongroom when lie was asked to lake a rope to workers in the room. When he was delivering it the whole place collapsed and he was entombed.