Two men were fatally injured in a strange accident at the Municipal Building at 1 o'clock this morning, when a freight elevator on which they were standing overturned and threw them into the engien room two stories below the street.

The men were Patrick McLoughlin, 42, of 332 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, elevator operator at the Municipal Building, and Joseph Kaufman, 44, of 1,050 Forest Avenue, Bronx, a cleaner. Kaufman and Solomon Slavinsky, another cleaner, were bringing a hose from the sub-cellar, one story below the street, to flush Centre Street with water. The nozzle of the hose was caught between the side of the elevator and the street and the cleaners called McLoughlin to help them.

McLoughlin went to their aid with an iron bar. He and Kaufman stood on the elevator, tugging at the hose and striking at the elevator with the iron bar, while Slavinsky stood on the sidewalk, a few feet away.

According to Slavinsky, the elevator, which as no top piece and stood level with the sidewalk, suddenly tipped, and McLoughlin and Kaufman fell into the pit, and the elevator quickly descended on top of them, pinning their bodies between the bottom of the elevator and the shaft.

Slavinsky immediately gave the alarm and Patrolman Kennedy of the Elizabeth Street Station, who was on duty at City Hall, sent in a fire alarm. Truck No. 1 arrived under the direction of Battalion Chief John Gunn, who sent for the Rescue Squad on Great Jones Street.

The firemen of Truck 1 had almost freed the men, despite the great heat in which they had to work, when the Rescue Squad arrived. Its members donned masks and descended to the engine room with acetylene torches, with which they burned away the steel that held the men, and helped lift them out of the pit.

Father Daley of St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church, which is nearby, administered the last rites to McLoughlin as he lay in the pit. Then the two men were taken to Volunteer Hospital in an ambulance. The hospital surgeons held out no hope for either. McLoughlin had internal injuries and Kaufman's spine was broken. They were still unconscious when they reached the hospital.