Extracts
from
the Daily Press. 15th Aug. 1901.
95
DISASTROUS HOUSE COLLAPSE AND FIRE.
About 10.45 last night house No. 34, Cochrane Street collapsed, causing a conflagration which gutted the adjoining building. It is estimated that at least a dozen persons were buried under the ruins of the building---- one of whom was a woman, another presumably a child judging by the cries heard.
A number of Chinese passing at the time of the collapse were buried under the debris falling on to the street. Three dead and one wounded have been unearthed.
The cries of the unfortunates were heart-rending, and the Fire Brigade men worked like Trojans to rescue the victims, but necessarily had to work slowly and carefully, as a number of beams were only supported by a stone pillar, forming an arch, under which, buried among the lighter debris, the victims were imprisoned, and any careless removal of the posts and stones would have caused the whole to give way and crush the unfortunates to death.
A gang of coolies was sent for to expedite the removal of the debris and the rescue of the victims.
At the time of going to press, three men and one woman, besides those before-mentioned, had been removed from the ruins and sent to hospital.
The cause of the collapse is supposed to have been due to the recent heavy rains, which so soaked and undermined the flimsy structure that it collapsed under its own weight.
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