Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — EIGHT LIVES LOST. [ARTICLE]

EIGHT LIVES LOST.

CRUSHED BENEATH A BIG CHICAGO BUILDING. • ■-% A. Small Cyclone Blows Over an Unfinished Structure—Weakening of the Mortar by Thawing Frost Supposed to Be the Cause of the Disaster. Buried Under Tons of Brick. Eight people were crushed to death and four others seriously injured at 1:15 o’clock Tuesday morning by the falling of the stone rains of John York’s building at 781 South Halsted street, Chicago. York’s store was gutted by fire aifew weeks ago and the blackened Stone walls were left standing. It not supposed that there was Any danger of their falling. Shortly after 12 (o'clock Monday night, however, a brisk/gale of wind was blowing and a sudden gust caused the wails to topple,.-'and fall biitying two frame houses which . stood juht north of the ruins. The first house was occupied on the first floor by one Kunz, a jeweler, and his wife and four children. On the second floor lived the family of John Smith with his wife and three children. Smith was a saloonkeeper and with him roomed his bartender, who recently came from .Syracuse, N. Y. His first name was George, but the police were unable to learn his surname. Smith and his family and the bartender were all buried beneath the ruins. The York building was five stories high and the walls were made of large stones. The force of the wind which toppled the walls must have been terrific, as many of the large stones were hurled clear across the street. Shortly after the crash the ruins took fire and the bodies of the mangled victims were badly burned. An alarm was turned in at 1:45 o’clock; this was quickly followed by a second and third alarm. The fire department promptly responded, and went to work extinguishing the flames and attempting to rescue the victims. A great crowd soon congregated, and it was with difficulty the police and firemen could keep back the citizens who seemed anxious to assist in the work of rescue. The front walls of the building were threatening to fall at any moment, and the crowd was repeatedly warned to keep at safe distance from the ruins,

The fallen building was one of the South Halsted streetjandmarks. A year ago last summer it was reconstructed and changed from the old style frame structure that bad for years been known as a general store into a modern fivestory brick and stone. • It was then an imposing structure in that locality. The new store had 1 been in operation, but a few months, when last fail it was visited by a fire that! was probably the direct cause of the Calamity. The fire which wrecked the bjtrilding was a fierce one, and after several hours the side walls of the large structure fell in. Within a short time work was begun upon the ruins. Txyo weeks ago a falling scaffold severely injured two men at work upon the walls, but the work of repair went forward, and a week later York obtained a bujlding permit for a new five-story bridle building to cost "$&0,000. This had been begun some time ago, and the side walls were already in place. One of these caused the catastrophe.