"Collyers mansion"fires?

[Guest]

Hello everybody I'm new to the fire buff scene. And I have a question. I have BNN and sometimes a fire message will say searches delayed due to Collyers Mansion Type conditions. If possible can anyone tell me what this means. Thanks and everyone be safe.

Reggie

[Stench60 29]

The Collyer's were two brothers who were a little off in the head and collected newspapers and other various junk. They proceeded to fill their manhattan mansion with this garbage to the point that they were literally moving through tunnels of garbage to move around their home.

To make a long story short, when one brother died after being trapped under the mounds of junk, the other brother who may have been an invalid also died. it took the FDNY several days if not a week to find them due to the condition.

The reason I know this is because as a kid my mother would tell me to clean my room by saying that " it's starting to look like Collyer's Mansion."

[TR54 239]

In 1947, the police were tipped off that someone had passed away in the Collyer mansion. The police forced their way in but found themselves barricaded by walls and booby traps made of old newspapers, folding beds, and tons of other junk that the reclusive Collyers had constructed to keep outsiders away.

By the time authorities located the deceased brothers, they had removed more than 130 tons of rubbish from the mansion. The stash included the top of a horse-drawn carriage, a primitive x-ray machine, an automobile engine and chassis, 14,000 books, old medical equipment, dressmakers' dummies, and 14 grand pianos (that is not a typo).

In an interview before his death, Langley Collyer was asked why he and his brother had saved tons of newspapers dating back to 1918. In a statement sure to endear him to Accumulators everywhere, Langley said he was saving the newspapers for his brother (who was blind) "so that when he regains his sight he can catch up on the news."