TRAGEDY AT WELLINGTON

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1932, Page 5

TRAGEDY AT WELLINGTON

STRONG-ROOM COLLAPSES FALLING DEBRIS KILLS TWO OTHERS SERIOUSLY HURT OFFICE BEING DEMOLISHED By Telegraph.-—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The collapse of the walls of a large strong-room in the course of the demolition of the old Government Life Insurance Building, corner Jervois Quay and Brandon Street, this afternoon caused the death of two men and serious injuries to three others. Several tons of debris had to be shifted, in the course of which a man was injured by a falling brick, before the last body had been recovered.

The men killed were Harry Byford, single, age and address unknown; Richard Harold Wilson, single, aged 19, 9 Caprera Terrace, The injured men are Leonard Walter Lang, married, aged 39, I's Apuka Street, Brooklyn, fractured elbow and shock; James Summers, single, aged 2-8, 53 Ira Street, Miramar, head injuries and shock; Alexander Donald, single, aged 38, 40 Abel Smith Street, bruises and shock; Lewis Ham, aged 36, 54 Ira Street, Miramar, hip injuries and shock. Those who were working on the job state that there was no warning of the impending disaster. At the rear of the building on the level of the first floor stood a large and substantially-built strong-room. A gang was making preparations to demolish the stout twelveinch walls. The walls had been deeply scarfed all round and the roof was strongly “tommed’ ’to prevent a preliminary fall. No one knows precisely what happened, but at 2.50 p.m. there was suddenly a loud crack. There was the thud of crashing masonry, and where formerly stood the strong-room was an ugly heap of jagged masonry and brickwork.

Five men had. been engaged in and about the room. Some of the men were outside the wall; otherwise all must have been crushed by the weight of masonry.

One of the injured men was pushed over the edge of what remained of the floor and fell 15 feet to the ground. This was James Summers. He was taken to hospital by the free ambulance. Lang, a buildey, foreman of the work then proceeding, had an arm broken and his face lacerated. He had to be dispatched to hospital with Donald, who was badly bruised and had his back injured.

Byford was caught by falling rubble near the outer side of the strong-room. He was rescued badly crushed and died on the way to hospital. Richard Wilson, son of Harold Wilson, was buried alive. It seems that Wilson had been standing on one of the walls away from the strong-room when he was asked to take a rope to the workers in the strong-room. When he was delivering it the whole place collapsed and he was entombed.

When the injured men had been sent to the hospital the contractor (Clement Oapill) and his men started at once to recover the body of the boy. The work took over three hours. A manual winch was used to lift great blocks of debris. Even after part of the body was uncovered'it took another hour to free it entirely.