The Collapse of the Schoellkopf Power Plant series of 10
pictures Friday June 8th 1956 Slide Crashes Power Plant 2nd
Building Is Toppling Onto Ledge 39 Escape - 1 Believed Dead.
Officials Say Loss Is $100 Million Dollars Building Flies Apart
Like A Jet Stream A rock slide roared like a thousand lions
followed by three earth shaking electrical explosions, buried
two-thirds of the Schoellkopf Power Station in Niagara Falls,
New York at the base of the Niagara Gorge shortly after 5 p.m.
(Thursday June 7th 1956). Thirty-nine terrified workers emerged
from the plant just as the remaining section of the plant burst
into orange flames. Richard A. Draper, age 39, of Lewiston, New
York, a maintenance foreman was hurled through the window into
the river. He is presumed dead. A jet like burst of water from a
broken penstock carried his body along with thousands of tons of
debris into the surging maelstrom. Three men were treated in
hospital. Two men were blown out of the building with Draper,
were picked up by a motor l