DEMOLITION OF BUILDING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25346, 20 November 1947, Page 7

DEMOLITION OF BUILDING

I Wreckage Cleared For Searchers WALL PULLED INTO STREET Although demolition of the building fronting Colombo street was started yesterday, workmen in the main concentrated on clearing areas of the building so that the police could continue their search for bodies. The top storey section of the walls from Cashel street corner to the original Dunstable House was demolished, but the taller Dunstable House frontage was anchored by steel cables. The City Engineer (Mr E. Somers), the District Public Works Engineer (Mr E. F. Evans), the contractor (Mr C. S. Luney), and officers of the Fire Brigade and the Army held a conference in the morning, and agreed that the building was a menace to those searching for victims. The wall cooled during the night, and its deviation from plumb increased by six inches to a foot. An Army Scammell tractor with a 20-ton pull was available, and wire ropes were put around the parapet and through windows on the top floor. Before the tractor began its pull the consulting authorities decided that if the walj gtood firm working squads could continue and extend their search inside the building. When the tractor took the strain on the corner parapet it became obvious that the wall would give. Sections of the concrete cr.me away, and eventually a wide sector crashed through the veranda to the ground. The rest of the wall was also pulled down by the tractor, and the huge blocks of masonry were quickly removed by City Council workmen. Before the walls were pulled down, employees of the Tramway Board and the Municipal Electricity Department dismantled overhead wires. Tramway Service Mr Somers said last evening that it had been hoped that the tramway service would have been restored late yesterday afternoon, but the building was not anchored in time. With the building anchored, he considered that it would be safe for the trams to operate through Colombo street this morning. Most of the street would be clear for general traffic, but part would have to be roped off as it was inevitable that pieces of stone would be falling for some time. The whole frontage of the building would have to be demolished, but Mr Somers could not say when the work would begin. City Council workers pumped the water out of the basement yesterday afternoon, and to-day the police will go right through the building in search of bodies.

A relay of trucks carted debris away from the building yesterday. Most of the workmen were employed by the council, but Public Works men and soldiers assisted with the demolition and clearing up.