BRUNNER FATALITY

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 8491, 26 May 1904, Page 2

BRUNNER FATALITY

By Telegraph: Greymouth, May 25. A Star representative has just returned from the scene of the B runner disaster. Ho states that a most distressing calamity, resulting in the loss of eight lives, took place ftt half-past 2 o'clock this morning. The slip also caused the total destruction of a four-roomed house and the partial destruction. of Jones' Terminus Hotel. It appears that at the above hour Mr Walter Cosgrove was awakened by a heavy crash at the back of his house. He at once hurried his wife out: they took their two youngest children in, their arms. Mr Cosgrove tried to get into the back room, where five of their other children were sleeping, but as it was in pieces he could not do so. As the house was gradually collapsing he could not get out by the door. Before Mrs Cosgrove had time to get clear another fall came down, smashing tho house to atoms and burying the children. It also crashed through, the Terminus Hotel, burying Mr Homy Jones and knocking Mrs Cosgrovo down and killing the two youngest children, partially covering them and knocking and bruising the mother very severely. Help was soon at hand, and tho mother was extricated from under the edge of the debris. Another second and she would have lost her life. Word went round about the calamity, and a couple of hundred hands went bo work, and 'had recovered the bodies by 10.20 a.m. Those killed are Bessie, aged 13 years; Maggie, 12 years; Mary, 10 years; Thomas, eiiglit years; Jack, five years ; Nellie, four years ; Nora, 18 months (being all the Cosgrove family, and found all together) ; and Henry Jones, aged 60 years. It is computed that there were about 2000 yards of earth, trees, and rocks in the slip. A large amount of minor damage has been done to property.

(Ofcago Daily Times Correspondent.) Greymouth, May 25. Tlie alarm "was quickly given, and hundreds of ready workers assembled and commenced the work of rescue atr once —no easy task, seeing that oyer 2000 tone were covering the house with its young victims. The Maj-or otf Brunner was here, there, and everywhere directing operations, wliile the miners, taking their turns, were clearing away the debris as fast as possible. The first bodies recovered were the two children found alongside Mrs Cosgrove. Both were dead, and Mrs Cosgrove, who was rescued, is very seriously injured, and suffering, in addition* from the terrible shock. When the material was cleared away the poor woman was found with one arm around her youngest child, the other child being close beside her. The dead bodies were removed to the Courthouse, Mrs Cosgrove being taken to Mr Allison's dwelling. The work proceeded apace, the last of the children's bodies being rescued about 11 o'clock and conveyed to the Courthouse, where many willing and sympathetic woipera were washing the victims and laying them out. Up till 1 o'clock the body of Harry Jones had not been recovered, the workers having to incur great risk ini clearing out the slip from the lower portion of the building. The whole .of fho road was completely blocked with an immense amount of materia], a considerable portion being carried further down and on to the railway line. The railway hands were at work clearing away the latter, and trains were able to pass up as far as Bruimer.