AN APPALLING CALAMITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 4

AN APPALLING CALAMITY.

(From the New York Tribune, June 26 )

An appalling catastrophe occurred in Syracuse on Tuesday night. A strawberry festival and concert were being given at the parlours of the Central Baptist Church, when, without any premonition, the floor gave way, about half-past 9 o'clock, precipitating the room full of people into the storey below. At the rear of the church are the Sunday School rooms, occupying the first floor, and the church parlours occupying the second floor. This part of the edifice was in use for the festival and concert. At the time of the accident supper was being served in the central parlour, which had been prepared for the occasion with tables, &c. This room, which was 40ft. square, was filled with people, the session room below being deserted, save by a few persons. The number in the supperroom is variously estimated at from 250 to 500, mostly grown persons. At the time the floor gave way the children of the congregation were in one of the outrooms, being prepared for the "Ancient Concert." But for this fact alone, the list of the dead must have been very much larger, as many of the helpless little ones would have been crushed to death in the mass of humanity crowded into the V. shaped vortex formed by the falling floor. At the moment of the falling of the floor, the scene within the parlour was one of happy enjoyment. While all were pleasantly engaged, without a single sign of warning, the floor suddenly sank beneath them, and in an instant the happy throng found themselves buried in a mass of struggling humanity, intermixed with falling timbers, furniture, &c. , and in utter darkness, the gas having been extinguished by the breaking of the gaspipes. The descent of the floor was accompanied with a terrible crashing of timbers, and from the endangered human beings went up horrible cries for aid. An instant after the terrible descent had been made, all was silent as the grave ; but immediately after heartrending appeals for help were to be heard from hundreds of those who were in agony. Immediately after persons were Been issuing from the doors and windows, which were smashed out by the frightened people, and an alarm waß sounded. The uninjured within the church who were able to free themselves from the mass began at once to assist in rescuing others. The firemen and police were quickly at hand, and laboured nobly in the work of rescue. Entrance to the church was at once stopped, and none were allowed to entef it except those engaged in taking out the sufferers. The Bcene within the building was terrible in its details, and that without the edifice was heartrending indeed. Fathers and mothers searching for their children, husbands looking for wives, wives enquiring for husbands, brothers for sisters, and children for their parents, of whose fate all were uncertain and in dread. Quietly, but rapidly, the work of extricating the people was carried on by the aid of lanterns, a large number of which had been secured. While some busied themselves with shoring up slanting sections of the floor, many others were aiding men, women, and children to free themselves, and as fast as the living and the dead were rescued they were passed out through windows and doors, where ready hands assisted to convey the dangerously injured and dead to physicians' offices and the neighbouring houses. The work was vigorously but slowly prosecuted, and, toward midnight, the last of the living and the dead had been taken out. The excitement without the church was terrible, and as each body, either dead or severely injured, was being carried to the adjoining houses, the mass surged back and forth, all terribly anxious to ascertain who it was, and whether dead or alive. At the height of the excitement not less than 10,000 people were crowded into Montgomery and Jefferson streets and in the adjoining premises. The excitement at the scene did not subside until long after midnight, at which hour the dead had either been removed to their homes or to various undertaking-rooms in the city. Various theories as to the cause of the accident are advanced. The floor which fell £was suspended by iron rods from a wooden truss under the roof. These rods went through the lower, but not through the upper chord of the truss. The lower chord had been spliced wrong side up, and at that point was the first to

give way. The, floor, having no props beneath it, sank in the form of the letter V. Most of the deaths were caused by the falling timbers of the truss. Some, however, were smothered by the plastering. The floors of the church were supported originally by iron pillars. A short time ago the Church Building Committee, with the consent, as they say, of the architect, removed the iron pillars. The result was the calamity of Tuesday night. The truss was very imperfectly constructed. Besides being spliced, the most prominent builders in the city declare that it was rotten. It was put in green and has the dry rot. The number of wounded footß up 100, of whom 20 are seriously injured.