Kimberly, WI Mill Collapses, Oct 1927

5 KILLED AT KIMBERLY.

MORE THAN SCORE IN HOSPITAL WHEN SECTION IN MILL COLLAPSES.

SECTION OF BEATER ROOM BREAKS DOWN
BURY 30 EMPLOYES UNDER TONS OF BRICKS, TIMBER AND MACHINERY.

At least five men were killed and more than a score injured, three or four critically, about 10 o'clock this morning when a section of the beater room of the Kimberly Clark Paper Co. mill at Kimberly caved in without warning of any sort. At 3 o'clock this afternoon, the bodies of three dead men and 16 injured had been taken from the wreckage and at that time it was estimated that there were at least nine more in the debris. More than 150 men are digging feverishly to reach the dead and injured buried under tons of brick, pulp, timbers and machinery.
Names of the dead and injured as announced by officials of the Kimberly-Clark Co. are printed in the adjoining column. A checkup of employes believed to have been in the building at the time of the crash indicates that 11 more men still are buried in the wreckage.
Thirty men were at work in the building when it collapsed, according to mill officials. Nineteen men employed by the C. R. Meyer and Sons Construction Co., of Oshkosh, were engaged in removing planking from the floor of the basement of the two story structure. Eleven of the thirty men were employes of the Kimberly-Clark Co. and most of them were in the beater room.
The section which collapsed is in the heart of the mill, on the north side, facing the Fox River. The north wall and part of the west wall collapsed, carrying the heavy beater machinery into the basement. Mill officials late this afternoon were unable to give a reason for the crash but said they had no reason to believe that the building was unsafe.
H. G. Boon, superintendent of the mill, immediately took charge of the rescue work and in a few minutes the entire plant was shut down while the men were organized into rescue squads. The rescue work is perilous because of the danger that the remaining walls will collapse and bury the rescuers under tons of brick and timbers.
Hundreds of women and children gathered around the mill as soon as word of the disaster went forth clamoring for words of their relatives. Officials of the company issued frequent bulletins to keep relatives informed of the progress of the rescue work.
Late this afternoon sufficient debris was cleared away to permit taking the dead and injured out of the wrecked building by way of the river. They were transported by boats to waiting ambulances and rushed to the hospital.
The collapse came so suddenly that even the workmen in the building are unable to tell what happened.
"All we heard was a crash and all around us there was dust and falling timbers, brick and machinery," they said.
"I was shoveling some dirt into the wheel barrow, when suddenly the air was filled with flying stones, bricks and boards," said W. ZAHN, who was in the building. "My eyes were blinded with dust and all about me was a great noise. I was frightened and several times bricks or pieces of masonry struck me. I made no attempt to move until the noise had subsided. All about me I heard cries of fellow workmen. The air was filled with steam from the broken pipes and I guess I was saved by two heavy timbers just over my head. I could not see where I was going but I felt my way out through the timbers and finally made my way out to the river where I finally felt safe."

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