quote: NEW YORK (AP) -- A man who says he sells books and magazines on the street was rescued after being trapped for two days under a mountain of reading material in his apartment.
Patrice Moore, 43, had apparently been standing up when the books, catalogs, mail and newspapers swamped him on Saturday. Firefighters and neighbors rescued Moore on Monday afternoon and he was hospitalized in stable condition Tuesday morning with leg injuries.
"I didn't think I was gonna get out," Moore told the New York Post, adding that he called for help repeatedly.
His landlord discovered him Monday after coming to the apartment to give Moore a small loan and heard a strange voice inside. The landlord pried the door open with a crowbar, found Moore trapped and alerted the fire department.
The apartment was stuffed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with stacks of paper.
Emergency workers and neighbors dug through the debris to reach Moore, filling 50 garbage bags with paper. He was freed about a half hour later, said Fire Department spokesman Paul Iannizzotto.
Moore, a former mailroom clerk now receiving public assistance, said he collected books and magazines for more than 10 years and earned money by selling them on the street.
The incident recalled the legendary case of the Collyer brothers, who in 1947 were discovered dead in their house in Harlem after one of them became trapped under a pile of papers and the other died of starvation.
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Well we are putting in a closet organizer system in one of our closets either tonight or tomorrow. Maybe that will help me ward the curse off. (You should see my parents garage!)
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This reminds me of a story about a couple of "eccentric" brothers. One was paralyzed, unable to leave his bed. His brother brought him magazines dailly and books continually, storing them in a labyrinth of stacks and piles in every conceivable corner of their house.
Their neighbors found them both dead. The "healthier" brother was found buried under a tumbled stack of books and papers. Unable to move he died trapped down there. His brother, with no one to bring him food or water died in his bed.
I'll see if I can find a link to that tragic story.
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Dan, they mentioned that story in the story linked to above...
quote: The incident recalled the legendary case of the Collyer brothers, who in 1947 were discovered dead in their house in Harlem after one of them became trapped under a pile of papers and the other died of starvation.
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Big stacks of paper also tend to heat up in the middle as they slowly decompose, of course, and so can burst into flames. This is the scourge of paper mills. The mill in Snowflake, Arizona had a fire in their furnish pile that nearly burned down the whole mill.
I think the compression of gravity in a heavy stack is required for this, or I hope so. I never heard of a library that kept books vertically on shelves having this problem, did anyone else? Mostly it's six foot stacks of old newspapers in people's rooms.
My dad used to have a burglar bar business and of course people in poor parts of town are some of the main customers for burglar bars. He would describe how many people's houses would have only lanes and paths for walking, between mounds and walls of old newspapers. Big fire hazard. And Mama always had nightmares that our house had become like that. She's always throwing stuff out, the valiant new broom who battled bravely against the encroaching piles of junk of the packrats she lived with. Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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