100 years ago in The Record

Wednesday, May 2, 1917

Survivors of the fatal April 17-18 Mohican store fire give dramatic testimony describing the building’s collapse at a coroner’s inquest today, The Record reports. Three firemen were killed and approximately a dozen injured when the building at 365 River Street imploded around 3 a.m. on April 18. Initial reports blamed an exploding ammonia tank in the cellar, but the cause of the collapse remains a matter for dispute at today’s hearing. William J. Cunningham was on the Mohican roof as it collapsed. “I cannot say just when the explosion or collapse came,” he says today. “There!” exclaims Rensselaer County District Attorney John P. Taylor, “Let us stop a minute and consider that explosion or collapse. Was there an explosion?” “I won’t say there was an explosion,” Cunningham answers, “We were working with chemicals on the roof and started to take off the roof of the elevator house when ammonia fumes became strong. I heard no rumbling noise before the collapse. It seemed as if the center of the building opened and swallowed us. I’m positive it was the center of the building that collapsed – it was a clear drop from the roof to the bottom.” Other survivors corroborate Cunningham’s account of a strong ammonia smell. “When we ran, the ammonia fumes were chasing us,” battalion chief Harry Ranken testifies.

Ranken and Lt. Philip Casey of Engine No. 14 agree that two distinct fires were burning simultaneously, one on the top floor and one in the cellar. Ranken recalls hearing “a whistling sound and a distant boom [that] resembled the bursting of a steampipe” moments before the collapse, while Capt. William H. Quinn of Engine 14 heard “a whistling sound … like that of a pipe breaking,” followed by “a dull thud and the crash.”

Was an ammonia explosion enough to bring down the building? Casey testifies that the top-floor, loaded with canned goods, was shaking before the collapse, while Fire Chief Patrick Byron, who was blown through the Mohican’s front doorway by the collapse, believes the building was structurally unsound.

“You can’t take the center wall out of a building, making two stores into one, and expect to have as strong a building as before the alteration,” Byron testifies, “I have seen three buildings collapse for that cause,” the chief says, “The floors buckle up and go down.”

The Mohican owners did just that during a 1902 renovation supervised by William Martin, who testifies that steel girders were installed to replace the center wall. While he describes his work as “strong construction,” Martin notes that “much depended upon the weight put on the floors.”