FOUR KILLED

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 April 1925, Page 5

FOUR KILLED

BUILDING COLLAPSES

UPPER PORTION WRECKED

A MELBOURNE DISASTER. BY GAUGE-PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT, MELBOURNE, April 25. With a roar like thunder the upper parts of a seven-storeyed building in the course of election in Swanston Street, in the city, collapsed shortly before knocking off time yesterday. A large number of workmen who were engaged upon it were overwhelmed, four men being dead when extricated and fifteen injured. The building was being erected for the British Australian Tobacco. Company. The names of the dead are: George Marshall, aged 48, a white-washing contractor, of Fitzroy; Reginald Shaw, aged 22, of Carlton; Victor Ingham, aged 35, of Northcote ; Edgar Lvdiard, aged 40, of Brunswick. The first three men were married. Little is known at present regarding Lydia rd. The fire brigade was soon on the scene, and escape ladders were run up against the still quivering walls. Firemen rescued those who could he seen, while workmen made a feverish search for those of their mates who were buried. Two bodies were recovered by six o’clock, and another shortly after. At 8 o’clock the architect examined the standing walls and reported that there was imminent danger of the floor upon which the rescuers were at work collapsing, but it was only after much argument and when it was pointed out that the unfortunate men were certainly dead and that forty other lives would be in momentary danger that the men would agree to leave off the search till daybreak.

Little warning of the collapse was given. On the fourth floor, the third floor and the roof there were dozens of labourers, carpenters, plasterers, whitewashes and painters. The pay envelopes were being passed round, when suddenly there was heard a slow grinding sound.- and the men saw a wall bulging outward and then contracting again, after which it fell like a sheet in the wind. A rush for the exits followed. Those who rushed for the front were lucky, while those who went to the back were mostly caught. One wall collapsed like a concertina, the other walls folded in and the ceiling fell in a shower of debris. Giant concrete pillars gave way under the strain of tons of falling concrete, much of which pierced the .fourth floor.

The large crowds which quickly gathered hampered the work of the ambulances and the police and a special squad was rushed* to the scene to prevent people entering the building. After the workmen left another search was made by a small party and the remaining body was recovered at ten o’clock.

Experts are mystified as to the cause of the collapse of the Tobacco Company’s building. It was to have been finished in the next two month's.

✓ Sensational disclosures are expected at the inquest.