January 11, 1912, New-York Daily Tribune,
Page 3, Column 1.
Worked in water up to his knees? Give me a break.
"SAY APPARATUS WAS LATE,"
Fully 18 Minutes Elapsed Before Engines Reached Fire.
EMPLOYES TALK AT INQUIRY
Fought Flames and Thought They Had Blaze Under Control, but Alarm Was Turned In.
Nine employes of the Equitable Life Assurance Society and the Café Savarin and three policemen were witnesses yesterday afternoon before Acting Fire Marshal Prial, who is conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire. One of the principal witnesses was Phillip O'Brien, timekeeper in the Cafe Savarin, in whose room the fire originated.
He said that he arrived at the building at 5 o'clock, his time to report for work. His room, a small enclosure 4 by 12 feet, is in the basement of the Pine Street side, a few feet from the elevator shaft. When he arrived at the place, O'Brien said, he went directly to his room, reaching there a few minutes after 5 o'clock. He then went to another room to get some books. Before he left his office, O'Brien says, he lit a match, with which he lit the gas. He said he was sure he threw the burned match on the stone floor outside the office door.
O'Brien says he returned to his office a few minutes later and went out again at exactly fifteen minutes after 5 o'clock. At 5:18 o'clock, he said, he was informed by another employee that his room was afire. He went to the room and found a waste basket and a portion of a chair burning.
From testimony it was seen that the fire started between 5:15 o'clock, when O'Brien left his room, and 5:18 o'clock, when he was told about the fire. The official time recorded on the automatic alarm clocks at all of the fire houses and Headquarters was 5:34 o'clock, or at least sixteen minutes after the fire had been discovered.
Sargeant Eugene Casey and Patrolman David J. Foley, who ran to the building when they heard of the fire, and Patrolman John Hummell, who was also present, were witnesses. Casey and the others found, they said, the employees fighting the fire, and when Casey ordered one of the patrolmen to turn in an alarm he was told by some one in the place that it was not necessary, that they could handle the blaze. Casey says the place was so filled with smoke that he could not identify the man who told him this. The sergeant, however, saw that the blaze was serious, and caused an alarm to be turned in.
Arthur E. Davis, who was in charge of the building when the fire was discovered, testified that the fire could not have been caused by defective insulation.
Davis said there was one continuous stairway in the building, leading from the basement to the top floor. He said he showed the firemen how to reach the upper floors and he then thought of the boilers in the basement of the building. Fearing they would explode, he hurried down, worked in water above his knees and drew from under the seven boilers enough fire to lower the pressure and avert an explosion.
William Collins testified he found Davis on an upper floor of the building after he had drawn the fire from under the boilers and that he assisted him to the street. He said it was at least twenty minutes after he was told of the fire in the timekeeper's room before the fire apparatus arrived.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Dig Out Second Body in Equitable Ruins,
January 15, 1912, New York Times, "Dig Out Second Body in Equitable Ruins,"
Monday
[See also: Walls of Equitable Yield Another Body, January 15, 1912, New-York Daily Tribune, "WALLS OF EQUITABLE YIELD ANOTHER BODY," page 1, Column 1,
-William Campian's Hand Frozen Upon the Iron Bar He Clasped as He Was Killed. -
DIG OUT SECOND BODY IN EQUITABLE RUINS
William Campion's Hand Frozen Upon the Iron Bar He Clasped as He Was Killed.
TUNNEL THROUGH SOLID ICE
Many Thousands Visit the Ruins---Little Danger Now of Falling Walls---Remove More Records.
The body of William Campion, special watchman for the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, was removed yesterday afternoon from the ruins of the Equitable Building under circumstances even more dangerous than attended the extrication of Chief Walsh's body on Saturday. Although the body was buried only a few feet from one of the Broadway windows, it nevertheless required eight hours of chopping, sawing, and smelting to remove it.
There had never been any doubt as to the exact location of Campion's body. His were those ghasley white hands which had been plainly seen stretching appealingly for help on the afternoon of the first day of the fire. They were seen from the steel-grated window from which William Giblin, President of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, had been rescued. Some said that the hands had grasped the steel bars of the window. Others said that they had been within a foot of the bars. It was not until yesterday that it was positively determined that one of the hands was in fact grasping the only obstacle to safety when death came.
When night of the first day came the hands were already buried from sight by a foot of ice. In the days that followed the ice grew to the thickness of fifteen feet, so that it became impossible even to see the window behind which the body had been last seen.
Just how Campion reached this spot is probematical. Mr. Giblin, after his rescue, said that a watchman had gone into the building with him, but he did not know his name. Chaplain McGean, who led the rescuers of Mr. Giblin, said he was sure that he had seen a man near where Mr. Giblin was imprisoned by the wreckage. Father McGean said that the place where the other man was lying was fully twenty feet from the Broadway windows. He also said that the man did not move and appeared to be dead.
The finding of Campion's body near the window makes it appear now that this man, whom Father McGean believed to be dead, by an almost superhuman effort had raised himself from his pitfall and rushed to the window from which Mr. Giblin had been taken; that he had just reached the window and grasped one of the steel bars when the crash from above ended his life.
Workingmen, beginning at 8 o'clock in the morning, had first thawed and picked away the fifteen feet of solid ice around the window. Then, with saws and gas smelters, they cut out three steel bars adjoining the two bars which had been cut and bent to effect Mr. Giblin's rescue, and this opening sufficed to begin operations with picks and smelters from within.
Workers' Lives in Danger.
A tunnel was bored through the solid ice while overhead hung suspended tons and tons of wreckage, the opening being too small to allow for proper shoring. Had this wreckage loosened, several lives undoubtedly would have been lost. Gradually the body of Campion was exposed.
The dead man was facing Broadway. He was in a crouching position, but his feet were resting squarely on the ground floor. His left hand grasped the bar. His right hand was frozen over his face, as if to shut from sight the ironical safety which lurked only a foot away. He was dressed in the regulation watchman's uniform, but his cap was missing. A brass shield, the positive assurance that he was killed in the pursuit of his duty, was still pinned over his breast. The shield led to his identification, for the face was somewhat marred and the features badly distorted; for a twelve-inch steel beam lay on top of the head. Dr. Lehane, Coroner's physician, said that death must have been instantaneous.
There were no relatives nor even friends there to mourn. The body was silently removed in a patrol wagon, while heads were uncovered, and taken to the Old Slip Police Station.
The curious had been driven from the scene by the police. Traffic had been entirely suspended for an hour out of respect to the dead man. Only at one point could the crowd overrule these proprieties. And that was in Old Trinity churchyard, just over the way. The police had no authority there, and thousands, without hindrance, crowded into the small cemetery and trampled the graves for standing room. Trinity churchyard, in fact, had not been so faithfully visited for many Sabbaths.
Digging for other bodies which remain in the ruins will not be continued until the walls of the building have been razed. John O'Connor, Supervising Inspector of Buildings, said yesterday that the tearing down process will be begun to-day.
"There is little danger of the outer walls falling," he said. "If warm weather should set in, the ice would no doubt fall in great cakes and endanger traffic, and this will be provided for. The inner walls may give way when the thaw comes, and we will have them torn down first, of course. We will begin with the inner walls above the fourth floor, which border on the open court in the centre. That ought to be finished by tomorrow night. This will be done by means of cables, fastened to the south wall, for instance, and extending through windows to the north side of the building, where the tugging will be done with machinery."
David B. Canavan, in charge of the wrecking work, said that he had 350 men working inside the building. He said that the third, fourth, and fifth floors had been shored from the inside to prevent the falling of the interior walls and partitions. All of the debris from the upper floors is thrown into the open space in the centre of the building, and taken out in wheelbarrows through the Pine Street entrance.
Detectives Guard Vaults.
"There is no danger of any of my gang of men helping themselves to the contents of the Equitable Life's or Mercantile Safe Deposit Company's vaults," Mr. Canavan saids. "It will take a week or more to get to those vaults. There are detecties inside and outside the building by the score to prevent any such thing, but there isn't much chance for a robbery. When we get to the vaults it will take a month longer to get the whole buillding torn down. It's dangerous work, all right. It isn't the outer walls that are dangerous, it's the inside walls, and that's why we want to get them out of the way before the thaw comes, if possible."
Yesterday was one of the noisiest Sundays in the financial section for many a year. Pine Street was one chain of moving vans and express wagons, for it was moving day for the Equitable Building tenants.
Seven immense van loads of records, consisting of more than 100,000 life insurance policies deposited as collateral for loans aggregating about $300,000,000. were removed from the Equitable Life Assurance Society on the second floor of the building, facing Pine Street. A smooth chute was constructed and the hundreds of boxes of records were permitted to slide down this into the vans below. The records were taken to the company's new quarters in the City Investing building, at 165 Broadway. W.B. Bremmer, assistant Treasurer of the Equitable, superintended the moving.
An oil painting of William C. Alexander, first President of the Equitable, was found ruined by water in President Day's private office. Near it hung a picture of H.H. Hyde, the father of Henry B. Hyde and the grandfather of James Hazen Hyde, also a total wreck. A picture of Henry B. Hyde hung untouched between these two pictures.
Frederick W. Fulle, Vice President of the Equitable Trust Company, was superintending the transfer of records of his company, also by the chute method. Everything had been found intact, he said. August Belmont & Co. and Mercantile Branch of the Bankers' Trust, also moved records. These, as well as the Equitable Trust, had moved their securities shortly after the fire, but had waited until assured that the building was temporarily safe from collapse before moving the bulkier records.
All around the burned building there appeared placards yesterday, announcing the changes in location of the various business concerns, and assuring the public that business was going on just as if there had been no fire at all. In some cases firemen, busy chopping frozen lines of hose from windows on the upper floors, accommodated the former tenants by placing placards in the most conspicuous places.
[Just like the missing persons' fliers that blanked Manhattan after September 11th!]
Great Crowds Visit the Ruins.
At 5 o'clock everyone was ordered outside the building by the Building Department Inspector in charge. Even the detectives whose duty it is to watch the vaults in the ruins had to come outside. It was said that all work would be discontinued until early to-day, when the work of tearing down the inner walls will begin.
Hundreds of thousands of persons went downtown to witness the spectacular ice formations on and near the Equitable Building yesterday. Capt. Hogan of the Old Slip Police Station was in charge of the police, and said he had never seen so many women in his life at one time.
Late last night William Campian's body was formally identified by a son-in-law. Coroner Hellenstein then gave permission for its removal from the Police Station to his home, at 94 Second Avenue, Brooklyn.
DINNER TO CHIEF KENLON.
Postponed Tribute to Fire Fighter Will Be Given on Jan. 30.
Fire Chief Kenlon is to be the guest of honor at a dinner at the Hotel Astor on Tuesday night, Jan. 30, given by a host of men who are one in their liking for the new Chief. Ex-Chief Edward Croker is among those, and conspicuous in their number are the group of Deputy Chiefs from whose ranks Kenlon rose last Summer and who were his competitors for the place. The dinner is to mark his succession to the post that Croker held so long, and Croker held it so very long that few remember any such dinner having been given before.
It was first set for a night in December, but as the time approached Chief Kenlon was too worried over the sickness of his young son to care for celebration. The dinner was postponed, and now the boy is well again.
About 350 persons have accepted invitations, and among those who will sit at the speakers' table are Mayor Gaynor, Police Commissioner Waldo, and Fire Commissioner Johnson. The lists of guests includes several Justices of the Supreme Court.
Monday
[See also: Walls of Equitable Yield Another Body, January 15, 1912, New-York Daily Tribune, "WALLS OF EQUITABLE YIELD ANOTHER BODY," page 1, Column 1,
-William Campian's Hand Frozen Upon the Iron Bar He Clasped as He Was Killed. -
DIG OUT SECOND BODY IN EQUITABLE RUINS
William Campion's Hand Frozen Upon the Iron Bar He Clasped as He Was Killed.
TUNNEL THROUGH SOLID ICE
Many Thousands Visit the Ruins---Little Danger Now of Falling Walls---Remove More Records.
The body of William Campion, special watchman for the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, was removed yesterday afternoon from the ruins of the Equitable Building under circumstances even more dangerous than attended the extrication of Chief Walsh's body on Saturday. Although the body was buried only a few feet from one of the Broadway windows, it nevertheless required eight hours of chopping, sawing, and smelting to remove it.
There had never been any doubt as to the exact location of Campion's body. His were those ghasley white hands which had been plainly seen stretching appealingly for help on the afternoon of the first day of the fire. They were seen from the steel-grated window from which William Giblin, President of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, had been rescued. Some said that the hands had grasped the steel bars of the window. Others said that they had been within a foot of the bars. It was not until yesterday that it was positively determined that one of the hands was in fact grasping the only obstacle to safety when death came.
When night of the first day came the hands were already buried from sight by a foot of ice. In the days that followed the ice grew to the thickness of fifteen feet, so that it became impossible even to see the window behind which the body had been last seen.
Just how Campion reached this spot is probematical. Mr. Giblin, after his rescue, said that a watchman had gone into the building with him, but he did not know his name. Chaplain McGean, who led the rescuers of Mr. Giblin, said he was sure that he had seen a man near where Mr. Giblin was imprisoned by the wreckage. Father McGean said that the place where the other man was lying was fully twenty feet from the Broadway windows. He also said that the man did not move and appeared to be dead.
The finding of Campion's body near the window makes it appear now that this man, whom Father McGean believed to be dead, by an almost superhuman effort had raised himself from his pitfall and rushed to the window from which Mr. Giblin had been taken; that he had just reached the window and grasped one of the steel bars when the crash from above ended his life.
Workingmen, beginning at 8 o'clock in the morning, had first thawed and picked away the fifteen feet of solid ice around the window. Then, with saws and gas smelters, they cut out three steel bars adjoining the two bars which had been cut and bent to effect Mr. Giblin's rescue, and this opening sufficed to begin operations with picks and smelters from within.
Workers' Lives in Danger.
A tunnel was bored through the solid ice while overhead hung suspended tons and tons of wreckage, the opening being too small to allow for proper shoring. Had this wreckage loosened, several lives undoubtedly would have been lost. Gradually the body of Campion was exposed.
The dead man was facing Broadway. He was in a crouching position, but his feet were resting squarely on the ground floor. His left hand grasped the bar. His right hand was frozen over his face, as if to shut from sight the ironical safety which lurked only a foot away. He was dressed in the regulation watchman's uniform, but his cap was missing. A brass shield, the positive assurance that he was killed in the pursuit of his duty, was still pinned over his breast. The shield led to his identification, for the face was somewhat marred and the features badly distorted; for a twelve-inch steel beam lay on top of the head. Dr. Lehane, Coroner's physician, said that death must have been instantaneous.
There were no relatives nor even friends there to mourn. The body was silently removed in a patrol wagon, while heads were uncovered, and taken to the Old Slip Police Station.
The curious had been driven from the scene by the police. Traffic had been entirely suspended for an hour out of respect to the dead man. Only at one point could the crowd overrule these proprieties. And that was in Old Trinity churchyard, just over the way. The police had no authority there, and thousands, without hindrance, crowded into the small cemetery and trampled the graves for standing room. Trinity churchyard, in fact, had not been so faithfully visited for many Sabbaths.
Digging for other bodies which remain in the ruins will not be continued until the walls of the building have been razed. John O'Connor, Supervising Inspector of Buildings, said yesterday that the tearing down process will be begun to-day.
"There is little danger of the outer walls falling," he said. "If warm weather should set in, the ice would no doubt fall in great cakes and endanger traffic, and this will be provided for. The inner walls may give way when the thaw comes, and we will have them torn down first, of course. We will begin with the inner walls above the fourth floor, which border on the open court in the centre. That ought to be finished by tomorrow night. This will be done by means of cables, fastened to the south wall, for instance, and extending through windows to the north side of the building, where the tugging will be done with machinery."
David B. Canavan, in charge of the wrecking work, said that he had 350 men working inside the building. He said that the third, fourth, and fifth floors had been shored from the inside to prevent the falling of the interior walls and partitions. All of the debris from the upper floors is thrown into the open space in the centre of the building, and taken out in wheelbarrows through the Pine Street entrance.
Detectives Guard Vaults.
"There is no danger of any of my gang of men helping themselves to the contents of the Equitable Life's or Mercantile Safe Deposit Company's vaults," Mr. Canavan saids. "It will take a week or more to get to those vaults. There are detecties inside and outside the building by the score to prevent any such thing, but there isn't much chance for a robbery. When we get to the vaults it will take a month longer to get the whole buillding torn down. It's dangerous work, all right. It isn't the outer walls that are dangerous, it's the inside walls, and that's why we want to get them out of the way before the thaw comes, if possible."
Yesterday was one of the noisiest Sundays in the financial section for many a year. Pine Street was one chain of moving vans and express wagons, for it was moving day for the Equitable Building tenants.
Seven immense van loads of records, consisting of more than 100,000 life insurance policies deposited as collateral for loans aggregating about $300,000,000. were removed from the Equitable Life Assurance Society on the second floor of the building, facing Pine Street. A smooth chute was constructed and the hundreds of boxes of records were permitted to slide down this into the vans below. The records were taken to the company's new quarters in the City Investing building, at 165 Broadway. W.B. Bremmer, assistant Treasurer of the Equitable, superintended the moving.
An oil painting of William C. Alexander, first President of the Equitable, was found ruined by water in President Day's private office. Near it hung a picture of H.H. Hyde, the father of Henry B. Hyde and the grandfather of James Hazen Hyde, also a total wreck. A picture of Henry B. Hyde hung untouched between these two pictures.
Frederick W. Fulle, Vice President of the Equitable Trust Company, was superintending the transfer of records of his company, also by the chute method. Everything had been found intact, he said. August Belmont & Co. and Mercantile Branch of the Bankers' Trust, also moved records. These, as well as the Equitable Trust, had moved their securities shortly after the fire, but had waited until assured that the building was temporarily safe from collapse before moving the bulkier records.
All around the burned building there appeared placards yesterday, announcing the changes in location of the various business concerns, and assuring the public that business was going on just as if there had been no fire at all. In some cases firemen, busy chopping frozen lines of hose from windows on the upper floors, accommodated the former tenants by placing placards in the most conspicuous places.
[Just like the missing persons' fliers that blanked Manhattan after September 11th!]
Great Crowds Visit the Ruins.
At 5 o'clock everyone was ordered outside the building by the Building Department Inspector in charge. Even the detectives whose duty it is to watch the vaults in the ruins had to come outside. It was said that all work would be discontinued until early to-day, when the work of tearing down the inner walls will begin.
Hundreds of thousands of persons went downtown to witness the spectacular ice formations on and near the Equitable Building yesterday. Capt. Hogan of the Old Slip Police Station was in charge of the police, and said he had never seen so many women in his life at one time.
Late last night William Campian's body was formally identified by a son-in-law. Coroner Hellenstein then gave permission for its removal from the Police Station to his home, at 94 Second Avenue, Brooklyn.
DINNER TO CHIEF KENLON.
Postponed Tribute to Fire Fighter Will Be Given on Jan. 30.
Fire Chief Kenlon is to be the guest of honor at a dinner at the Hotel Astor on Tuesday night, Jan. 30, given by a host of men who are one in their liking for the new Chief. Ex-Chief Edward Croker is among those, and conspicuous in their number are the group of Deputy Chiefs from whose ranks Kenlon rose last Summer and who were his competitors for the place. The dinner is to mark his succession to the post that Croker held so long, and Croker held it so very long that few remember any such dinner having been given before.
It was first set for a night in December, but as the time approached Chief Kenlon was too worried over the sickness of his young son to care for celebration. The dinner was postponed, and now the boy is well again.
About 350 persons have accepted invitations, and among those who will sit at the speakers' table are Mayor Gaynor, Police Commissioner Waldo, and Fire Commissioner Johnson. The lists of guests includes several Justices of the Supreme Court.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
January 9, 1912, The Auburn Citizen,
January 9, 1912, The Auburn Citizen, "$10,000,000 Fire In the Heart of New York's Financial District," page 1, column 1, Latest Edition,
THE AUBURN CITIZEN. NEW YORK,
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1912.
LATEST EDITION.
$10,000,000 FIRE IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK'S FINANCIAL DISTRICT
FOUR KNOWN DEAD, SEVERAL MISSING
Latter, Including Battalion Chief Walsh, Are Probably in the Ruins of Great Marble Structure—Three Firemen Leaped from Roof to Death en Pavement Below-
Blaze Started in a Restaurant and Spread Rapidly—Adjoining Property in Danger.
New York, Jan. 0,—The great marble building of the Equitable Life Assurance Society at 120 Broadway—the home of the Mercantile Trust Company, the Equitable Trust Company, the banking house of Kountze Brothers, the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company and the Harriman Lines—was destroyed early today by fire.
Four men are known to be dead and live injured and several persons are missing, including Battalion Chief Walsh, whose body has not been found.
The fire was still burning in the debris in the basement of the building this afternoon.
The Loss.
Conservative estimates of the damage made this afternoon placed the loss in the neighborhood of $10,000,000 while others say the loss will ran as high as $16,000,000.
Millions of dollars in cash and securities are locked in the vaults of the Assurance Society and the banking and trust companies but are not believed to be affected by the flames.
William Gtblin. president of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, was iprisoned in the vaults and as rescued after the firemen had sawd through several two inch steel bars. One man is believed to have lost his life in the vaults.
In Heart of Financial District.
The fire was in the heart of the financial district and the flames were fought mainly from the tops of towering skyscrapers. Business was brought almost to a complete standstill among banking and brokerage houses whose employes could not reach the scene of their daily activities. Financial firms stopped business to care for the firemen.
"With the exception of another insurance building, the biuilding of the Equitable Life Assurance Society has a greater assessed valuation than any other building in the financial district, the tax department showing that its assessed valuation was $12,500,000.
In the Equitable also were the executive offices of the Western Maryland railroad, together with the law offices of Herbert Satterlee, son-in-law of J. Pierpoint Morgan, and Alexander & Green, together with the offices of many other attorneys.
Four alarms were rung in at 6 o'clock this morning for the fire, which, when discovered, was sweeping through the big office building. The building is located at the corner of Broadway and Pine street, across from Old Trinity church, one block above Wall street and, in the heart of the financial district. The first firemen to reach the scene in response to an alarm sent in by a watchman, realized that the task before them was one of the greatest difficulty and their first move was to order out all the fire apparatus in the down town district by means of four successive alarms.
The fire was in the eighth, ninth and tenth stories of the structure before lines of hose sufficient to reach up the long flights of stairs were coupled together. The building is one of the old time structures and its construction offered no serious obstacle to the spread of the flames. The Pine street side of the building from the eighth floor to the roof was a raging furnace. Pine street is a narrow thoroughfare, scarcely affording room for two wagons to pass, and on the opposite side from the Equitable building stands a 20 story skyscraper. The bricks of this structure were steaming with a heat which made them fairly gleam as the firemen retreated from the point where they had taken their first stand.
Streams Lacked Force.
All the water towers were too short to reach the flames, and the hose streams, after winding around the staircase, lost all their force on the upper stories.
Fire officials at an early hour admitted that even with the best efforts they could possibly put forward, the loss would mount to a minimum of probably $5,000,000.
At 7 o'clock the roof of the building fell in. The firemen turned their efforts to the nearby buildings in an effort to stem the advance of the flames.
Police officials reported at this hour that thee loss of life would probably be about eight. Three men jumped from the roof of the Equitable building into Cedar street, the police reported, and were killed.
The fire started In the Cafe Savarin, an eating house in the basement of the building. While the restaurant employes were smothering the flames in their kitchens, the blaze crept up the elevator shafts without their knowledge and a few minutes later broke out in unrepressed,fury on the upper floors.
Bodies in Plain Sight.
At 7:30 o'clock the police supplemented their bulletin regarding loss of life by the announcement that the three men who jumped into Cedar street were probably firemen, part of a crew which had been sent to the roof of the building. Three mere bodies, supposed to be those of workmen or watchmen, could be seen through the flames in one of the basement rooms of the building.
By this time the entire building, from cellar to roof and on all four sides, was a seething mass of flames. All the floors fell in soon after the roof went but the great granite walls held firm.
The firemen made a desperate effort to save the three men who jumped into Cedar street but they had no time to rig their life nets. The three stood on the cornice of the building only a moment or two, the flames behind them driving them to desperation. Then they knelt for just a moment, lifted their hands in prayer, and leaped together to the cobbles, 150 feet below.
So tremendous was the heat that great blocks of the granite walls burst from their places and crashed into the streets, adding a new danger to the others which threatened firemen and policemen. After a few moments spent under this avalanche of falling rock. Chief Kenton ordered his men withdrawn from Cedar and Pine streets.
A gale of wind sweeping through the streets drove the flames through the building from end to end. Firemen dragged their hose to the tops of the Chase National Bank on Pine street and from the top of the Fourth National bank on Nassau street while other lines of hose were run upon a sky scraper opposite the burning building on Broadway from which streams of water were directed on the flames. Five alarms were turned in and fire tugs from the North and East rivers grouped themselves at a convenient dock and pumped volumes of water into the building.
Fire Commissioner Johnson discovered a man imprisoned in the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company at the corner of Cedar street and Broadway. The man could be seen from the street and his legs were pinned down by a mass of fixtures and debris which had fallen from above. He was alive and held out his bands to the firemen who made frantic though futile efforts to break through the heavy steel doors. Father McGean of the Fire department gave the last rites of the church to him.
The imprisoned man was William Glblln, the president of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, who had arrived at the building after the fire was under headway and attempted to take some papers from the place. He was later taken out badly injured.
Deputy's Narrow Escape.
Deputy Fire Chief William Walsh and five firemen were caught when a section of floor in an upper story gave way. The firemen managed to reach a window ledge where they were rescued by means of life lines, but Chief Walsh had disappeared, in the smoking ruins. Efforts were made to reach the spot where he was buried but the firemen could not find him.
Father McGean nearly lost his life when administering the last rites to the man imprisoned in the safe deposit vault, the firemen dragging him away just as a shower of bricks and stones fell on the spot where he had been kneeling.
As the firemen carried Father McGean away the imprisoned man turned to him and pityingly said:
"For God's sake, Father, take me out of here, I am dying. Can't you get at me."
Two porters in the Safe Deposit Company were rescued from the basement of the building when the sidewalk in front of the structure caved in. They were injured and removed to a hospital.
Confined to Equitable Building.
The fire was finally confined to the Equitable building, though for a time It seemed as though the flames would sweep across the street and set fire to the American Exchange National Bank at Cedar street and Broadway on which the sparks were falling in a perfect shower. This building was kept wet down by streams of water from the skyscrapers on all sides.
The heat of the flames toad the intensity of a blast furnace. The heavy floors of the building buckled under the giant walls crumbled under the white hot fire and fell in while heat and dropped piece meal into
Part of tbe Brooklyn fire department was despatched to the scene to aid in preventing the spread of the flames.
Business in the financial section of the city was brought practically to a standstill by the fire. Thousands of clerks in banking and brokerage houses, railroad and industrial corporations were held back by police lines formed two blocks north of the fire and traffic of every kind in the Streets nearby the burning building was forbidden by the police.
Tried to Penetrate Vault.
After the flames had been checked three men were reported to be alive in the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, where one man had already lost his life and the firemen tried to batter down the steel doors. The falling stone and brick and the heat had warped the doors and they could not be unlocked. While the firemen ware hammering away a part of the coping fell and the rescuers had a narrow escape. After the stone had fallen the firemen made renewed efforts to penetrate the steel doors.
Three employes of the building saved themselves from death by leaping from the third floor of the building to the street below. They were taken to the hospitals seriously injured.
After the fire had been checked and the firemen were able to get closer to the buidtilng it was discovered that the Belmont building on Nassau street which adjoins, the burning building, had been saved though the offices of August Belmont & Co., had been flooded with water.
Firemen at last succeeded in battering in a steel door and rescuing two watchman who were imprisoned in the vault.
Ambulances from four hospitals were on the scene to take care of the injured.
Rescue of Giblin.
President Giblin of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company was rescued from the vaults of his company after the firemen had sawed through several steel bars. He was believed to be mortally injured.
After President Giblin was rescued from the fire he was carried to the boiler room of the Trinity building. Ambulance surgeons stripped off his clothes and wrapped him in heavy blankets. Stimulants were administered. After a brief interval of rest Mr. Giblln said:
"I was sitting up last nlght with my wife who has been very ill, when an employe of tbe hotel informed me that the Equitable building was on fire. When I arrived at the building there were no flames but plenty of smoke. I hurried into one of the vaults to get out some valuable papers followed by one of the night watchmen whose name I do not know. The vault has a spring lock and I left my keys outside.
Door Swung Shut.
"When the man and I started to leave the door swung shut and we were both prisoners. The smoke was awful. We screamed and shouted but it seemed as though we were both doomed. The other poor fellow was alive up to half an hour ago, but just before I was carried out he fainted and think he must be dead by this time."
Mr. Giblin was taken to tbe Hudson street hospital. He was very weak but in no immediate danger.
The offices of the Harriman lines, which were in tbe building, were being moved to 165 Broadway. Everything had been moved save the papers in their legal department. Many
valuable records, including the autobiography of E. H. Harriman, were there and it was believed that these and other valuable records were destroyed.
Business at Standstill.
Banking and brokerage business was halted for a time by the fire and the governors of the stock exchange met to determine what action should be taken with respect to deliveries of securities purchased yesterday.
The clearing house in the Chase National Bank was closed and temporary quarters were opened at the Chamber of Commerce. Depositors and bank customers of the burned
out trust companies as well as those of financial institutions located in the neighborhood of the burned building were unable to reach their banks, being held back by the police lines.
An officer of the Equitable Life Assurance Society said that the society had duplicates of every record which were stored in a building several blocks away from the burned structure. The fire, he said, would not affect the company's business with its policyholders throughout the country.
Officials of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company said tbe vaults were intact and not a cent would be lost.
Later the governors decided that transfers will be suspended for a day except by mutual consent.
Loss Small, Says Lovett.
President Lovett of the Harriman Lines said that all of the Union and Southern Pacific securities held in the treasury were kept outside the building and the loss to the railroads would be small. Mr. Lovett said that the extent of inconvenience suffered
because of the lose of records will of course, depend upon whether the vaults on the third and fourth floors of the buildings have been destroyed. The records referred to include those of the comptrollers department, the treasuers office and the transfer departmnet.
President Day of the Equitable called a meeting of the Executive Committee at the company's new building on Greenwich street to consider the matter of securing temporary quarters. Of the 1,800 clerks employed by the society about 600 were employed in this main building while the others were engaged in the Greenwich street building.
The offices of the Equitable Trust
(continued on ninth page)
Page 9, Column 6,
FIRE LOSS WAS $10,000,000
(Continued from first page).
Company luckily escaped the flames, but were damaged by water, as were the offices of August Belmont, who said his offices were practically untouched by flames though well water soaked.
Day Issues Statement.
President Day of the Equitable issued the following statement this afternoon.
"The burning of the home office at 120 Broadway will cause but temporary inconvenience in the transaction of our business. Securities and important records are protected by fire proof vaults which are intact. Most of the office force and records were removed some time ago to the society's new building No. 2 Albany Street.
"The executive offices of the society and the casihler's department have been established in the City Investing building. The society will occupy the second, third and fourth floors of that building. This will for the time being be the home office of the society where all business with the public will be transacted."
Gage Tarbell, a former vice president of the Equitable, said that the company carried it own insurance. According to an officer of the Equitable the great safety deposit vaults in the building contained last night securities aggregating between $250,000,000 and $300,00O.O00. The vaults are believed to be still intact.
Many of the large New York banks announced that owing to the fire they would witihhold their prerogative of calling loans today.
The money market, owing to the action of these bankers, was practically at a stand still.
IMPORTANT RECORDS SAFE.
News from New York Relieves Superintendent Hotchkiss.
Albany, N.Y., Jan. 9 .—As soon as he learned of the destruction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society building today, Superintendent of Insurance Hotchkiss communicated with officials of the society for the purpose of ascertaining if the records had been saved. He was much gratified to learn that most of the vital records were kept in the branch offices of the society in the Hazen building, several blocks from the main offices.
"The records of the Equitable or any large insurance company," said Mr. Hotchkiss, "are of inestimable value and probably could never be replaced. It is fortunate that most of them have been saved from destruction.
THE AUBURN CITIZEN. NEW YORK,
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1912.
LATEST EDITION.
$10,000,000 FIRE IN THE HEART OF NEW YORK'S FINANCIAL DISTRICT
FOUR KNOWN DEAD, SEVERAL MISSING
Latter, Including Battalion Chief Walsh, Are Probably in the Ruins of Great Marble Structure—Three Firemen Leaped from Roof to Death en Pavement Below-
Blaze Started in a Restaurant and Spread Rapidly—Adjoining Property in Danger.
New York, Jan. 0,—The great marble building of the Equitable Life Assurance Society at 120 Broadway—the home of the Mercantile Trust Company, the Equitable Trust Company, the banking house of Kountze Brothers, the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company and the Harriman Lines—was destroyed early today by fire.
Four men are known to be dead and live injured and several persons are missing, including Battalion Chief Walsh, whose body has not been found.
The fire was still burning in the debris in the basement of the building this afternoon.
The Loss.
Conservative estimates of the damage made this afternoon placed the loss in the neighborhood of $10,000,000 while others say the loss will ran as high as $16,000,000.
Millions of dollars in cash and securities are locked in the vaults of the Assurance Society and the banking and trust companies but are not believed to be affected by the flames.
William Gtblin. president of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, was iprisoned in the vaults and as rescued after the firemen had sawd through several two inch steel bars. One man is believed to have lost his life in the vaults.
In Heart of Financial District.
The fire was in the heart of the financial district and the flames were fought mainly from the tops of towering skyscrapers. Business was brought almost to a complete standstill among banking and brokerage houses whose employes could not reach the scene of their daily activities. Financial firms stopped business to care for the firemen.
"With the exception of another insurance building, the biuilding of the Equitable Life Assurance Society has a greater assessed valuation than any other building in the financial district, the tax department showing that its assessed valuation was $12,500,000.
In the Equitable also were the executive offices of the Western Maryland railroad, together with the law offices of Herbert Satterlee, son-in-law of J. Pierpoint Morgan, and Alexander & Green, together with the offices of many other attorneys.
Four alarms were rung in at 6 o'clock this morning for the fire, which, when discovered, was sweeping through the big office building. The building is located at the corner of Broadway and Pine street, across from Old Trinity church, one block above Wall street and, in the heart of the financial district. The first firemen to reach the scene in response to an alarm sent in by a watchman, realized that the task before them was one of the greatest difficulty and their first move was to order out all the fire apparatus in the down town district by means of four successive alarms.
The fire was in the eighth, ninth and tenth stories of the structure before lines of hose sufficient to reach up the long flights of stairs were coupled together. The building is one of the old time structures and its construction offered no serious obstacle to the spread of the flames. The Pine street side of the building from the eighth floor to the roof was a raging furnace. Pine street is a narrow thoroughfare, scarcely affording room for two wagons to pass, and on the opposite side from the Equitable building stands a 20 story skyscraper. The bricks of this structure were steaming with a heat which made them fairly gleam as the firemen retreated from the point where they had taken their first stand.
Streams Lacked Force.
All the water towers were too short to reach the flames, and the hose streams, after winding around the staircase, lost all their force on the upper stories.
Fire officials at an early hour admitted that even with the best efforts they could possibly put forward, the loss would mount to a minimum of probably $5,000,000.
At 7 o'clock the roof of the building fell in. The firemen turned their efforts to the nearby buildings in an effort to stem the advance of the flames.
Police officials reported at this hour that thee loss of life would probably be about eight. Three men jumped from the roof of the Equitable building into Cedar street, the police reported, and were killed.
The fire started In the Cafe Savarin, an eating house in the basement of the building. While the restaurant employes were smothering the flames in their kitchens, the blaze crept up the elevator shafts without their knowledge and a few minutes later broke out in unrepressed,fury on the upper floors.
Bodies in Plain Sight.
At 7:30 o'clock the police supplemented their bulletin regarding loss of life by the announcement that the three men who jumped into Cedar street were probably firemen, part of a crew which had been sent to the roof of the building. Three mere bodies, supposed to be those of workmen or watchmen, could be seen through the flames in one of the basement rooms of the building.
By this time the entire building, from cellar to roof and on all four sides, was a seething mass of flames. All the floors fell in soon after the roof went but the great granite walls held firm.
The firemen made a desperate effort to save the three men who jumped into Cedar street but they had no time to rig their life nets. The three stood on the cornice of the building only a moment or two, the flames behind them driving them to desperation. Then they knelt for just a moment, lifted their hands in prayer, and leaped together to the cobbles, 150 feet below.
So tremendous was the heat that great blocks of the granite walls burst from their places and crashed into the streets, adding a new danger to the others which threatened firemen and policemen. After a few moments spent under this avalanche of falling rock. Chief Kenton ordered his men withdrawn from Cedar and Pine streets.
A gale of wind sweeping through the streets drove the flames through the building from end to end. Firemen dragged their hose to the tops of the Chase National Bank on Pine street and from the top of the Fourth National bank on Nassau street while other lines of hose were run upon a sky scraper opposite the burning building on Broadway from which streams of water were directed on the flames. Five alarms were turned in and fire tugs from the North and East rivers grouped themselves at a convenient dock and pumped volumes of water into the building.
Fire Commissioner Johnson discovered a man imprisoned in the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company at the corner of Cedar street and Broadway. The man could be seen from the street and his legs were pinned down by a mass of fixtures and debris which had fallen from above. He was alive and held out his bands to the firemen who made frantic though futile efforts to break through the heavy steel doors. Father McGean of the Fire department gave the last rites of the church to him.
The imprisoned man was William Glblln, the president of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, who had arrived at the building after the fire was under headway and attempted to take some papers from the place. He was later taken out badly injured.
Deputy's Narrow Escape.
Deputy Fire Chief William Walsh and five firemen were caught when a section of floor in an upper story gave way. The firemen managed to reach a window ledge where they were rescued by means of life lines, but Chief Walsh had disappeared, in the smoking ruins. Efforts were made to reach the spot where he was buried but the firemen could not find him.
Father McGean nearly lost his life when administering the last rites to the man imprisoned in the safe deposit vault, the firemen dragging him away just as a shower of bricks and stones fell on the spot where he had been kneeling.
As the firemen carried Father McGean away the imprisoned man turned to him and pityingly said:
"For God's sake, Father, take me out of here, I am dying. Can't you get at me."
Two porters in the Safe Deposit Company were rescued from the basement of the building when the sidewalk in front of the structure caved in. They were injured and removed to a hospital.
Confined to Equitable Building.
The fire was finally confined to the Equitable building, though for a time It seemed as though the flames would sweep across the street and set fire to the American Exchange National Bank at Cedar street and Broadway on which the sparks were falling in a perfect shower. This building was kept wet down by streams of water from the skyscrapers on all sides.
The heat of the flames toad the intensity of a blast furnace. The heavy floors of the building buckled under the giant walls crumbled under the white hot fire and fell in while heat and dropped piece meal into
Part of tbe Brooklyn fire department was despatched to the scene to aid in preventing the spread of the flames.
Business in the financial section of the city was brought practically to a standstill by the fire. Thousands of clerks in banking and brokerage houses, railroad and industrial corporations were held back by police lines formed two blocks north of the fire and traffic of every kind in the Streets nearby the burning building was forbidden by the police.
Tried to Penetrate Vault.
After the flames had been checked three men were reported to be alive in the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, where one man had already lost his life and the firemen tried to batter down the steel doors. The falling stone and brick and the heat had warped the doors and they could not be unlocked. While the firemen ware hammering away a part of the coping fell and the rescuers had a narrow escape. After the stone had fallen the firemen made renewed efforts to penetrate the steel doors.
Three employes of the building saved themselves from death by leaping from the third floor of the building to the street below. They were taken to the hospitals seriously injured.
After the fire had been checked and the firemen were able to get closer to the buidtilng it was discovered that the Belmont building on Nassau street which adjoins, the burning building, had been saved though the offices of August Belmont & Co., had been flooded with water.
Firemen at last succeeded in battering in a steel door and rescuing two watchman who were imprisoned in the vault.
Ambulances from four hospitals were on the scene to take care of the injured.
Rescue of Giblin.
President Giblin of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company was rescued from the vaults of his company after the firemen had sawed through several steel bars. He was believed to be mortally injured.
After President Giblin was rescued from the fire he was carried to the boiler room of the Trinity building. Ambulance surgeons stripped off his clothes and wrapped him in heavy blankets. Stimulants were administered. After a brief interval of rest Mr. Giblln said:
"I was sitting up last nlght with my wife who has been very ill, when an employe of tbe hotel informed me that the Equitable building was on fire. When I arrived at the building there were no flames but plenty of smoke. I hurried into one of the vaults to get out some valuable papers followed by one of the night watchmen whose name I do not know. The vault has a spring lock and I left my keys outside.
Door Swung Shut.
"When the man and I started to leave the door swung shut and we were both prisoners. The smoke was awful. We screamed and shouted but it seemed as though we were both doomed. The other poor fellow was alive up to half an hour ago, but just before I was carried out he fainted and think he must be dead by this time."
Mr. Giblin was taken to tbe Hudson street hospital. He was very weak but in no immediate danger.
The offices of the Harriman lines, which were in tbe building, were being moved to 165 Broadway. Everything had been moved save the papers in their legal department. Many
valuable records, including the autobiography of E. H. Harriman, were there and it was believed that these and other valuable records were destroyed.
Business at Standstill.
Banking and brokerage business was halted for a time by the fire and the governors of the stock exchange met to determine what action should be taken with respect to deliveries of securities purchased yesterday.
The clearing house in the Chase National Bank was closed and temporary quarters were opened at the Chamber of Commerce. Depositors and bank customers of the burned
out trust companies as well as those of financial institutions located in the neighborhood of the burned building were unable to reach their banks, being held back by the police lines.
An officer of the Equitable Life Assurance Society said that the society had duplicates of every record which were stored in a building several blocks away from the burned structure. The fire, he said, would not affect the company's business with its policyholders throughout the country.
Officials of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company said tbe vaults were intact and not a cent would be lost.
Later the governors decided that transfers will be suspended for a day except by mutual consent.
Loss Small, Says Lovett.
President Lovett of the Harriman Lines said that all of the Union and Southern Pacific securities held in the treasury were kept outside the building and the loss to the railroads would be small. Mr. Lovett said that the extent of inconvenience suffered
because of the lose of records will of course, depend upon whether the vaults on the third and fourth floors of the buildings have been destroyed. The records referred to include those of the comptrollers department, the treasuers office and the transfer departmnet.
President Day of the Equitable called a meeting of the Executive Committee at the company's new building on Greenwich street to consider the matter of securing temporary quarters. Of the 1,800 clerks employed by the society about 600 were employed in this main building while the others were engaged in the Greenwich street building.
The offices of the Equitable Trust
(continued on ninth page)
Page 9, Column 6,
FIRE LOSS WAS $10,000,000
(Continued from first page).
Company luckily escaped the flames, but were damaged by water, as were the offices of August Belmont, who said his offices were practically untouched by flames though well water soaked.
Day Issues Statement.
President Day of the Equitable issued the following statement this afternoon.
"The burning of the home office at 120 Broadway will cause but temporary inconvenience in the transaction of our business. Securities and important records are protected by fire proof vaults which are intact. Most of the office force and records were removed some time ago to the society's new building No. 2 Albany Street.
"The executive offices of the society and the casihler's department have been established in the City Investing building. The society will occupy the second, third and fourth floors of that building. This will for the time being be the home office of the society where all business with the public will be transacted."
Gage Tarbell, a former vice president of the Equitable, said that the company carried it own insurance. According to an officer of the Equitable the great safety deposit vaults in the building contained last night securities aggregating between $250,000,000 and $300,00O.O00. The vaults are believed to be still intact.
Many of the large New York banks announced that owing to the fire they would witihhold their prerogative of calling loans today.
The money market, owing to the action of these bankers, was practically at a stand still.
IMPORTANT RECORDS SAFE.
News from New York Relieves Superintendent Hotchkiss.
Albany, N.Y., Jan. 9 .—As soon as he learned of the destruction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society building today, Superintendent of Insurance Hotchkiss communicated with officials of the society for the purpose of ascertaining if the records had been saved. He was much gratified to learn that most of the vital records were kept in the branch offices of the society in the Hazen building, several blocks from the main offices.
"The records of the Equitable or any large insurance company," said Mr. Hotchkiss, "are of inestimable value and probably could never be replaced. It is fortunate that most of them have been saved from destruction.
Walls of Equitable Yield Another Body,
January 15, 1912, New-York Daily Tribune, "WALLS OF EQUITABLE YIELD ANOTHER BODY," page 1, Column 1,
Wreckers Find William Campion After Cutting Through Ice Bank 15 Feet Thick.
KNELT AS IF ASKING AID.
All Is Ready for Demolishing Interior Walls That Seem Dangerous --- 90,000 Policies Held for Loans Removed.
The grim, ice-bound walls of Equiitable skeleton yielded up with infinite reluctance yesterday the body of another fire victim. William Campion, captain of the watchmen for the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company. A large force of Canavan wreckers, under the direction of Supervising Inspecter John O'Connor of the Bureau of Buildings, worked from 7 o'clock in the morning until after 4 o'clock in the afternoon to pierce the tomb and accomplish their purpose.
When they had cut through a bank of solid ice fifteen feet thick, which extended from the face of the building to the northbound car track in Broadway, they were met by a heartrending sight. Campion's burned hands were extended through the steel barred grill of an outer gate just below the curb near Cedar street, and he knelt, as if imploring the aid that did not come in time. He had crowded up so close to the steel grating which held him prisoner in the trap that his knees, too, were jammed between the bars, to which they, as well as the hands, were frozen.
A steel beam, descending with the crash of the floors above, must have brought death instantly when it came, for this beam had crushed in the skull. A sheathing of ice covered the body, mercifully hiding the distorted features, and cemented it to tons of wreckage behind consisting of hollow tile, bricks, steel beams and all manner of building debris. The man's joints, of course, were frozen rigid.
When the wreckers had carved their way through the ice to the grill they still had to cut the two-inch bars of steel before Campion could be released, since it was impossible to reach the body from behind. It was this same gate through which Seneca Larke, the Indian fireman, had dragged William Giblin, after sawing through one bar, the morning of the fire. Campion had been crushed before Giblin was extricated.
Takes Hours to Recover Body.
Four bars were severed, the four directly framing the ice-incased figure of the unfortunate watchman. It took hours to do it, as it had taken hours to cut a path to the gate. The first two bars were melted in half with the aid of acetylene smelters, but when this had been accomplished the gas had given out, and the other two bars were attacked with hack saws. Finally these, too, yielded. Then came the labor of separating the body from the bars and the wreckage.
A huge crowd of holiday sightseers took advantage of the lack of police lines to bank the west sidewalk of Broadway all the way from Liberty Street to Wall, so that old Trinity looked down on such a sea of heads as it is wont to see only on New Year's Eve. To gratify as little as possible the morbid curiosity of the sightseers the police placed a section of matched board fence across the path to the gate to screen Campion's body from view. Then about 3:30 o'clock the congestion having become dangerous, they cleared Broadway entirely between Liberty and Wall Streets. A large number of men, women and children were squeezed through into Trinity church yard, where they hugged the high iron fence along the Broadway sidewalk, peering through the palings and stamping on the graves.
At 4:17 o'clock the body was placed aboard a patrol wagon and, in the custody of Patrolman Nelson M. Hart, taken to the Old Slip station. There a brother-in-law of the watchman identified it, and at 4:45 o'clock it was delivered to Miles McKean, an undertaker, of No. 479 74th street, Brooklyn, who will remove it later to Campion's home, at No. 94 2d street, Brooklyn. Campion, who was sixty years old, leaves a wife and four children.
Now that an entrance has been effected into the rooms of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company it is hoped before long to find also the body of Francis Joseph Nieder, the other missing watchman, supposed to have perished in the collapse that cut off Campion. Nieder was another one of those who went into the vault with Giblin when the building was burning. It is supposed he lies buried deep in the wreckage rising into an ice-covered pyramid immediately behind the spot where Campion knelt.
Back in the centre of the ruin all is ready now for the "pulling" of those interier walls and partitions which appear dangerous. This morning the wreckers will attach steel cables to these walls, extend them through the window holes to the street, and, when every one is out of danger, start steam engines pulling the walls down on top of the interior debris. The men of the Bureau of Buildings who have the demolition of the building in charge consider that they have removed enough of the strain from the floors inside to make this operation entirely safe.
Pump Water All Night.
The wreckers quit the job at 5 o'clock last night, leaving behind a small force of men engaged in pumping out the water collected in the basement of the burned banding and threatening its foundations as well as the foundations of buildings in the immediate neighborhood. Inspector Judge, of the Bureau of Buildings estlmated that the water stood twelve feet deep under the wreckage. Two engines, one in Pine street and the other in Cedar street, operated eight centrifugal pumps throughout the night, pumping thsi water directly into the sewers.
The Bureau of Buildings is surrounding the ruin with a high fence of matched boards to keep pedestrians from venturing near enough to the walls to
Continued on second page.
Another Body Recovered. page 2, Column 4,
be hit by falling stone or by the ice which will begin to drop in tons as soon as a thaw releases it. As much of this fence as has already been completed is being decorated with big announcements of the new addresses of the burned out tenants.
The Equitable Life Assurance Society sent vans around to the Pine street side in the afternoon to remove the large steel boxes containing the ninety thousand policies on which it has lent about S70.000.000. These policies, which were stored on the second floor, half way between Broadway and Nassau street, escaped damage.
It is still out of the questlon to attempt an entry into the safe deposit vaults of the Equitable, which contain nearly $300,000,000 in securities, and those of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, which contain an even greater amount. Detectives stationed both inside and outside the building are watching them, none the less, to prevent burglars from venturing where wreckers fear to tread. Some say two weeks more must elapse before Wall Street can have the benefit of that buried wealth.
Wreckers Find William Campion After Cutting Through Ice Bank 15 Feet Thick.
KNELT AS IF ASKING AID.
All Is Ready for Demolishing Interior Walls That Seem Dangerous --- 90,000 Policies Held for Loans Removed.
The grim, ice-bound walls of Equiitable skeleton yielded up with infinite reluctance yesterday the body of another fire victim. William Campion, captain of the watchmen for the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company. A large force of Canavan wreckers, under the direction of Supervising Inspecter John O'Connor of the Bureau of Buildings, worked from 7 o'clock in the morning until after 4 o'clock in the afternoon to pierce the tomb and accomplish their purpose.
When they had cut through a bank of solid ice fifteen feet thick, which extended from the face of the building to the northbound car track in Broadway, they were met by a heartrending sight. Campion's burned hands were extended through the steel barred grill of an outer gate just below the curb near Cedar street, and he knelt, as if imploring the aid that did not come in time. He had crowded up so close to the steel grating which held him prisoner in the trap that his knees, too, were jammed between the bars, to which they, as well as the hands, were frozen.
A steel beam, descending with the crash of the floors above, must have brought death instantly when it came, for this beam had crushed in the skull. A sheathing of ice covered the body, mercifully hiding the distorted features, and cemented it to tons of wreckage behind consisting of hollow tile, bricks, steel beams and all manner of building debris. The man's joints, of course, were frozen rigid.
When the wreckers had carved their way through the ice to the grill they still had to cut the two-inch bars of steel before Campion could be released, since it was impossible to reach the body from behind. It was this same gate through which Seneca Larke, the Indian fireman, had dragged William Giblin, after sawing through one bar, the morning of the fire. Campion had been crushed before Giblin was extricated.
Takes Hours to Recover Body.
Four bars were severed, the four directly framing the ice-incased figure of the unfortunate watchman. It took hours to do it, as it had taken hours to cut a path to the gate. The first two bars were melted in half with the aid of acetylene smelters, but when this had been accomplished the gas had given out, and the other two bars were attacked with hack saws. Finally these, too, yielded. Then came the labor of separating the body from the bars and the wreckage.
A huge crowd of holiday sightseers took advantage of the lack of police lines to bank the west sidewalk of Broadway all the way from Liberty Street to Wall, so that old Trinity looked down on such a sea of heads as it is wont to see only on New Year's Eve. To gratify as little as possible the morbid curiosity of the sightseers the police placed a section of matched board fence across the path to the gate to screen Campion's body from view. Then about 3:30 o'clock the congestion having become dangerous, they cleared Broadway entirely between Liberty and Wall Streets. A large number of men, women and children were squeezed through into Trinity church yard, where they hugged the high iron fence along the Broadway sidewalk, peering through the palings and stamping on the graves.
At 4:17 o'clock the body was placed aboard a patrol wagon and, in the custody of Patrolman Nelson M. Hart, taken to the Old Slip station. There a brother-in-law of the watchman identified it, and at 4:45 o'clock it was delivered to Miles McKean, an undertaker, of No. 479 74th street, Brooklyn, who will remove it later to Campion's home, at No. 94 2d street, Brooklyn. Campion, who was sixty years old, leaves a wife and four children.
Now that an entrance has been effected into the rooms of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company it is hoped before long to find also the body of Francis Joseph Nieder, the other missing watchman, supposed to have perished in the collapse that cut off Campion. Nieder was another one of those who went into the vault with Giblin when the building was burning. It is supposed he lies buried deep in the wreckage rising into an ice-covered pyramid immediately behind the spot where Campion knelt.
Back in the centre of the ruin all is ready now for the "pulling" of those interier walls and partitions which appear dangerous. This morning the wreckers will attach steel cables to these walls, extend them through the window holes to the street, and, when every one is out of danger, start steam engines pulling the walls down on top of the interior debris. The men of the Bureau of Buildings who have the demolition of the building in charge consider that they have removed enough of the strain from the floors inside to make this operation entirely safe.
Pump Water All Night.
The wreckers quit the job at 5 o'clock last night, leaving behind a small force of men engaged in pumping out the water collected in the basement of the burned banding and threatening its foundations as well as the foundations of buildings in the immediate neighborhood. Inspector Judge, of the Bureau of Buildings estlmated that the water stood twelve feet deep under the wreckage. Two engines, one in Pine street and the other in Cedar street, operated eight centrifugal pumps throughout the night, pumping thsi water directly into the sewers.
The Bureau of Buildings is surrounding the ruin with a high fence of matched boards to keep pedestrians from venturing near enough to the walls to
Continued on second page.
Another Body Recovered. page 2, Column 4,
be hit by falling stone or by the ice which will begin to drop in tons as soon as a thaw releases it. As much of this fence as has already been completed is being decorated with big announcements of the new addresses of the burned out tenants.
The Equitable Life Assurance Society sent vans around to the Pine street side in the afternoon to remove the large steel boxes containing the ninety thousand policies on which it has lent about S70.000.000. These policies, which were stored on the second floor, half way between Broadway and Nassau street, escaped damage.
It is still out of the questlon to attempt an entry into the safe deposit vaults of the Equitable, which contain nearly $300,000,000 in securities, and those of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, which contain an even greater amount. Detectives stationed both inside and outside the building are watching them, none the less, to prevent burglars from venturing where wreckers fear to tread. Some say two weeks more must elapse before Wall Street can have the benefit of that buried wealth.
1800 FAMILIES SUFFERING.; Result of Recent Strike, Says Commissioner Edwards, to Y.M.C.A.
Talk about cold and insincere---this guy gives me the creeps! The corrupt political power matrix has apparently always been pervasive, but looking back from the vantage point of a hundred years later, it seems buffoonish and cartoonish. I guess the reporter got the rank hypocrisy on display, and saved it for posterity, so thanks Newspaper Of Record.
January 29, 1912, New York Times,
"1800 FAMILIES SUFFERING.; Result of Recent Strike, Says Commissioner Edwards, to Y.M.C.A.,"
Commissioner William H. Edwards of Street Cleaning Department paid a high tribute to the heroism of Battalion Chief William J. Walsh, who was killed in the Equitable Building fire, in an address he made yesterday afternoon at the West Side Y.M.C.A. on "A Man's Job."
"He had a man's job, and how well he filled it we all know," said Commissioner Edwards. "He was the leader of his men, and he forgot everything else but his man's job. And now the whole city pays honor to his memory."
Commissioner Edwards was greeted with a rousing cheer when he entered the big auditorium. Alderman Ralph Folks, a Republican member of the Board of Aldermen, who represents the district in which the Y.M.C.A. is located, introduced the Commissioner, saying:
"If conditions are ever to be as they should be in this city, we will realize that goal through the medium of our young men, and 'Bill' Edwards, as we know him in the Board of Aldermen, is one of those young men who is helping us to solve the problem."
"The trouble with many men in this city is that their hearts are shriveled and their handshake insincere," said Mr. Edwards. "This is a cold city in many ways; you know that as well as I. It's the kind of work a Y.M.C.A. like this is doing that I love."
Commissioner Edwards referred to the recent strike in his department as "a little trouble we had," and there was a laugh. He held up his hand.
"It's all right to laugh," he said, "but there are 1,800 families in this city suffering because of that strike. I have seen many pathetic cases; women have come to me with babies in their arms and begged that their husbands be reinstated. But when you fight for a principle you have to fight; that's a man's job, and if they did not want to strike they ought not to have allowed any one to influence them to do so."
Mayor Gaynor was one of those whom Commissioner Edwards said had a man's job.
"He has a big one, too," he said. "He gives sixty minutes of his best judgment to the city every hour, and see all the trouble he has been through."
January 29, 1912, New York Times,
"1800 FAMILIES SUFFERING.; Result of Recent Strike, Says Commissioner Edwards, to Y.M.C.A.,"
Commissioner William H. Edwards of Street Cleaning Department paid a high tribute to the heroism of Battalion Chief William J. Walsh, who was killed in the Equitable Building fire, in an address he made yesterday afternoon at the West Side Y.M.C.A. on "A Man's Job."
"He had a man's job, and how well he filled it we all know," said Commissioner Edwards. "He was the leader of his men, and he forgot everything else but his man's job. And now the whole city pays honor to his memory."
Commissioner Edwards was greeted with a rousing cheer when he entered the big auditorium. Alderman Ralph Folks, a Republican member of the Board of Aldermen, who represents the district in which the Y.M.C.A. is located, introduced the Commissioner, saying:
"If conditions are ever to be as they should be in this city, we will realize that goal through the medium of our young men, and 'Bill' Edwards, as we know him in the Board of Aldermen, is one of those young men who is helping us to solve the problem."
"The trouble with many men in this city is that their hearts are shriveled and their handshake insincere," said Mr. Edwards. "This is a cold city in many ways; you know that as well as I. It's the kind of work a Y.M.C.A. like this is doing that I love."
Commissioner Edwards referred to the recent strike in his department as "a little trouble we had," and there was a laugh. He held up his hand.
"It's all right to laugh," he said, "but there are 1,800 families in this city suffering because of that strike. I have seen many pathetic cases; women have come to me with babies in their arms and begged that their husbands be reinstated. But when you fight for a principle you have to fight; that's a man's job, and if they did not want to strike they ought not to have allowed any one to influence them to do so."
Mayor Gaynor was one of those whom Commissioner Edwards said had a man's job.
"He has a big one, too," he said. "He gives sixty minutes of his best judgment to the city every hour, and see all the trouble he has been through."
"Demolition of Seven Buildings on Broadway - One Imposing Structure to Take Their Place."
May 24, 1868, New York Times, "Demolition of Seven Buildings on Broadway - One Imposing Structure to Take Their Place."
A large number of workmen are now engaged in the demolition of seven buildings on Broadway, from the southeast corner of Cedar-St. downward. They occupy a frontage on Broadway of nearly 100 feet and a depth of 138 feet. Upon and covering the site of these seven buildings, the architects, Messrs. GILMAN & KENDALL, have been selected to erect a substantial and imposing ediface for the Equitable Life Insurance Company. This building, the design of which is nearly complete, is to be six stories in height, and composed mainly of the fine grained white granite of Concord New Hampshire. The architectural astyle is to be that which is now generally recognized as Renaissance. The first, or basement story, is to be built of the darker Quincy granite, boldly rusticated; the next, or grand entrance story, is to be in Roman Doric; the next Ionic, and the others varied, yet in harmony with those below and the dominant architectural idea. The basement story will be massive in appearance as well as reality, with wide openings for windows and doors. The facades of the stories above, on Broadway and on Cedar-street, are designed with arcades of the several orders which, above the basement, embrace two stories of the interior to one of exterior. The grand entrance story is intended to finish 20 feet 8 inches in its clear exterior height. On the pediment over the main entrance portico on Broadway, there is to be a sculptural allegorical group representing the "Guardian Angel of Life Assurance," stretching an arm of protection over the widow and the fatherless, with the title of the institution above. For Ionic there will be two stories of rooms corresponding in height with the interior grand hall---a height of 25 feet 6 inches; the first story to be 13 feet, and the second twelve feet---the fire proof flooring filling the difference in measurement. The other stories are to be similarly included, within the clear of a single order, and respectively 12 feet 6 inches in height. By the adoption of the plan of including two interior stories in one exterior, the architects have been enabled to secure a largeness, breadth and boldness of exterior composition, which could not have been obtained, perhaps, in any other way.
The principle entrance to the offices on the first floor, is to be by a spacious doorway on Broadway, opening into a vestibule, 18 feet by 21, and communicating by a central corridor 10 feet in width with the main staircase, the halls and other parts of the ediface. The staircase is to be 6 feet in width and of easy rises and treads throughout. It is to be lighted from three windows on each story and a domed skylight. The staircase hall is to be 19 by 24 feet. The divisions of the several stories are to be various in size. The cellar will be divided into large apartments, formed by the main walls of the divisions above. The basement is to be 11 feet 4 inches in height and divided in like manner with the next or entrance floor, and with a wide entrance on Cedar-street as well as on Broadway. The main entrance story is to be 20 feet 6 inches in height, containing, on the Broadway front, two large rooms designed for banking purposes---the one on the left of the vestibule to be 32 feet by 98, and the one on the right 30 feet by 56. The rooms for the Institution itself are to be on the upper floors, and are to be unique in design and furniture. The central or main business room of the Society is to measure 35 by 105 feet in area, and have an interior height of 25 feet 6 inches. It is claimed that this, as a business room, will be superior to any other in this City. The other rooms for clerks, agents, and others connected with the Company, are to be large, well furnished, lighted and ventilated. Besides the stairways, there are to be two steam-driven passenger lifts communicating with the stair landing on the several floors, designed for the use of such as prefer riding to walking up and down the ediface. In the attic ther is to be a variety of rooms for storage and such occasional uses as they may be required for. The entire building is to be fireproof, and the declared determination is to make it the most imposing structure on Broadway, designed for business uses. The cutting and carving of the stone is now in progress, and it is the intention of the owners to have iy in readiness for occupancy on the 1st of May, 1869.
A large number of workmen are now engaged in the demolition of seven buildings on Broadway, from the southeast corner of Cedar-St. downward. They occupy a frontage on Broadway of nearly 100 feet and a depth of 138 feet. Upon and covering the site of these seven buildings, the architects, Messrs. GILMAN & KENDALL, have been selected to erect a substantial and imposing ediface for the Equitable Life Insurance Company. This building, the design of which is nearly complete, is to be six stories in height, and composed mainly of the fine grained white granite of Concord New Hampshire. The architectural astyle is to be that which is now generally recognized as Renaissance. The first, or basement story, is to be built of the darker Quincy granite, boldly rusticated; the next, or grand entrance story, is to be in Roman Doric; the next Ionic, and the others varied, yet in harmony with those below and the dominant architectural idea. The basement story will be massive in appearance as well as reality, with wide openings for windows and doors. The facades of the stories above, on Broadway and on Cedar-street, are designed with arcades of the several orders which, above the basement, embrace two stories of the interior to one of exterior. The grand entrance story is intended to finish 20 feet 8 inches in its clear exterior height. On the pediment over the main entrance portico on Broadway, there is to be a sculptural allegorical group representing the "Guardian Angel of Life Assurance," stretching an arm of protection over the widow and the fatherless, with the title of the institution above. For Ionic there will be two stories of rooms corresponding in height with the interior grand hall---a height of 25 feet 6 inches; the first story to be 13 feet, and the second twelve feet---the fire proof flooring filling the difference in measurement. The other stories are to be similarly included, within the clear of a single order, and respectively 12 feet 6 inches in height. By the adoption of the plan of including two interior stories in one exterior, the architects have been enabled to secure a largeness, breadth and boldness of exterior composition, which could not have been obtained, perhaps, in any other way.
The principle entrance to the offices on the first floor, is to be by a spacious doorway on Broadway, opening into a vestibule, 18 feet by 21, and communicating by a central corridor 10 feet in width with the main staircase, the halls and other parts of the ediface. The staircase is to be 6 feet in width and of easy rises and treads throughout. It is to be lighted from three windows on each story and a domed skylight. The staircase hall is to be 19 by 24 feet. The divisions of the several stories are to be various in size. The cellar will be divided into large apartments, formed by the main walls of the divisions above. The basement is to be 11 feet 4 inches in height and divided in like manner with the next or entrance floor, and with a wide entrance on Cedar-street as well as on Broadway. The main entrance story is to be 20 feet 6 inches in height, containing, on the Broadway front, two large rooms designed for banking purposes---the one on the left of the vestibule to be 32 feet by 98, and the one on the right 30 feet by 56. The rooms for the Institution itself are to be on the upper floors, and are to be unique in design and furniture. The central or main business room of the Society is to measure 35 by 105 feet in area, and have an interior height of 25 feet 6 inches. It is claimed that this, as a business room, will be superior to any other in this City. The other rooms for clerks, agents, and others connected with the Company, are to be large, well furnished, lighted and ventilated. Besides the stairways, there are to be two steam-driven passenger lifts communicating with the stair landing on the several floors, designed for the use of such as prefer riding to walking up and down the ediface. In the attic ther is to be a variety of rooms for storage and such occasional uses as they may be required for. The entire building is to be fireproof, and the declared determination is to make it the most imposing structure on Broadway, designed for business uses. The cutting and carving of the stone is now in progress, and it is the intention of the owners to have iy in readiness for occupancy on the 1st of May, 1869.
$200,000,000 Is Taken Out,
January 11, 1912, The Evening Post: New York, Page 1, Column 5,
Thursday,
"$200,000,000 IS TAKEN OUT,"
ENTRANCE EFFECTED TO STEEL VAULTS UNDER RUINS.
Walls of Equitable Building Still Bulging, but Authorities Allow Cars to Run Down Broadway—Firemen Work in Wreckage—Walsh's Body Not Found, but the Search Goes On.
Contrary to expectations, there was no trouble in entering the Mercantile Trust Company's vaults on the first floor of the burned Equitable building this afternoon, and within two hours locksmiths had given the officers of the company the opportunity to remove $200,000,000 worth of stocks and bonds, all absolutely undamaged by fire or water.
Wall Street and the financial district generally heard this news with relief, while the crowds watching the operations outside the fire lines soon realized that the grocery carts waiting at the curb outside the ice-draped ruins were carrying fortunes, instead of vegetables. The little tin security boxes were piled in orderly rows in the spaces behind the driver's seats ---millions and tens of millions of paper in each wagon. It was said that the deep basement vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company would not be entered for three or four days
While the wagons drew up in Pine Street, just around the corner from Broadway, and tacked up to a side door under orders from the men superintending the removal of the securities, a strong force of police stood around, though there were comparatively few persons in the immediate neighborhood. As each wagon drove off, a group of patrolmen marched on each flank and behind. Most of the wagons were shabby affairs.
It had not been expected by any except the most optimistic that the securities would be reached before to-night. In fact, the secretary of the Stock Exchange posted the statement shortly after the opening of business, extending to Monday the time limit for delivery of securities involved in the fire. In the afternoon it looked as if the suspension of deliveries would be terminated within the next few hours.
WALLS BULGE, BUT STAND.
After a careful examination of the bulging walls of the Equitable building, the city authorities decided that it would be safe to allow the resumption of service by the Broadway surface cars. Engineers of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, who tested the walls of the subway, running almost underneath the wrecked building, said it would be safe to continue to run underground trains, although it was possible that the Interborough might decide later to ask for permission to build a roof of cross ties over Broadway, thus conflicting with the street car service.
That the danger of the wrecked building's collapse was by no means at an end was proved, however, by the refusal of the police and firemen to allow any tenants to remain in the sixteen-story skyscraper of the American Exchange National Bank, across the way at Cedar Street and Broadway. Other buildings on the Cedar Street block between Broadway and Nassau Street were likewise barred to their occupants as a precaution.
A survey of the Equitable building's walls showed that the Broadway front was eighteen inches out of plumb, having settled backward upon the two side walls along Pine and Cedar Streets. Under the pressure of the front wall, the Cedar Street side of the building had been shoved out until it hung two feet over the sidewalk below, leaning dangerously toward the buildings on the north side of the street. The exact distortion of the Pine Street wall had not been calculated, but it was enough to cause a long, jagged crack running diagonally through several stories. Any sudden increase in temperature or the springing up of a strong gale of wind might have disastrous effects upon the tottering Equitable wreck.
EQUITABLE NOT "SEEKING SITE."
Reports that the Equitable Life Assurance Society was negotiating for a new site upon which to build a modern skyscraper home were denied by E. E. Rittenhouse, conservation commissioner of the Society. While many offers of sites and buildings had poured in, the officers had been too busy with other matters to give them any thought.
The menace in the wrecked building did not seem to effect onlookers in its neighborhood, as a matter of fact. If the Broadway crowds that pressed up to the fire lines, with all the eager curiosity that they had exhibited since the spectacle was first provided for them on Tuesday, had any appreciation of the destruction and danger involved in the collapse of the building, they failed to give indication of it. Similarly, the wreckers and street cleaners engaged in clearing the structure of ice and debris moved about their tasks without seeming to fear. The glow of their lanterns flickered about the dark recesses of the lobby, reflected from the bronze statue of Henry B. Hyde, undamaged amid all the ruin about it, and the blows of their axes and spades could be heard outside in the street.
Most of the wreckers confined their attention to the huge heap of ice and fire-eaten timbers that towered two stories above the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, at Broadway and Cedar Street. They were severely handicapped by the condition of the building.
Through the hours that had elapsed since the fire was quenched, those in charge of the damaged building had been worried, of course, over the contents of the various vaults. They realized that there were expert robbers who would willingly risk twenty years in Sing Sing for an opportunity to get an unobstructed hour in front of one of the combinations. With such a stake as was provided by the vast securities, it stood
(Continued on Page Thirteen.)
Page 13, Column 6,
$200,000,000 IS TAKEN OUT.
to reason that no crook would mind the risk from heat or collapsing walls any more than he would mind taking the chance of being discovered by a policeman—providing, always, that the sporting chance of success was present. So the police took no chances, particularly at night. In the dark hours, when the regular fire lines had been withdrawn, squads of detectives were at all strategic positions about the building and in the vicinity of the vaults, and a most rigid guard was maintained. All outsiders were prohibited from approaching. All through to-day, as yesterday, smoke rose from the ruins and three streams of water were played into the Cedar Street side near Broadway, from the upper windows of the American National Exchange Bank building, which was cleared of tenants yesterday afternoon in anticipation of the toppling of the Equitable building's walls. This smoke came from fires deep down in the cellars under the building, where the broken gas mains, which had been ignited Tuesday morning, still flared unchecked.
W. M. Bassett, vice-president of the American Exchange National Bank, received this afternoon the following from the superintendent of buildings:
"I have no objection to your occupying that building, as I consider the condition of the walls of the Equitable building to the South as not in sufficiently dangerous a condition as to vacate the premises, No. 136 Broadway. I can therefore see no objection to your occupying the building.*
When the odor of gas became as strong yesterday as to be discernible out in Broadway, the Consolidated Gas Company was notified, and last night a number of inspectors, together with a gang of laborers, uncovered the two mains feeding the pipes of the building. One of these mains next to Liberty street and Broadway, was eight inches in diameter; the other, sixteen inches in diameter, was at Pine Street and Broadway. When they were uncovered a stop was inserted in each, and shortly before [ ] o'clock in the morning the Fire Department was notified that no more gas could come into the building. But notwithstanding these precautions, there still was some fire in the cellars that afternoon.
WALSH'S BODY NOT FOUND.
At midnight last night Deputy Chief Binns relinquished command of the firemen in charge of the wrecked building, and Battalion Chief Gray of the Bronx succeeded him. One of the first things Gray did was to go to the fourth floor at the Cedar Street side, where a company went to work at daylight, to take up the hunt for the missing body of Battalion Chief W. F. Walsh. Later in the morning, some of the firemen thought they saw a man's body in a heap of ice-coated wreckage, and a [hurry call] was sent down for reinforcements. Chief Kenlon took them up himself, and with Father McGean, one of the Department chaplains, and Gray, took charge of the search. The report got about the city that Walsh's body had been found, and soon the telephones in all the buildings in the neighborhood were ringing with requests for information from all sources, including fire houses. But in a few minutes word filtered down to the street that the rescuers had been deceived. The "body" was only a piece of timber covered with ice.
"I don't think Walsh will he found for at least two days," said Gray. "The steel beams are so twisted that they are liable to fall [M a a y t l s s e.] and if the rescuers were working at such a time the death list would be increased."
When Gray was first approached by the Metropolitan Street Railway for authority to restore service, he refused the request, as had Binn the night before. Later, however, when the report of Randolph P. Miller, Building Superintendent, to Mr. McAneny, Borough President of Manhattan, was made public, the refusal of the street car company's request was rescinded. Miller said he did not think there was any immediate danger of the collapse of the walls of the Equitable building, nor did he fear the effects upon them of the vibration caused by passing cars and subway trains. His report, as [emplinoaten] of a verbal declaration yesterday, was as follows:
I have made a personal examination of the condition of the remaining outside walls of the Equitable building this afternoon, with reference to the safety of the streetcar traffic along Broadway. I am of the opinion that there need be no apprehension at any danger to passing street cars. I would, however, advise that pedestrian traffic and other vehicular traffic be prohibited, because of the possibility of the falling of small pieces of ice and building material, which, while it would not be sufficient to cause damage to the roof of a street car, might be serious for a person. The officials at the street railway company have assured me that they will keep a lookout for any [tannow aerassnlated aa the balldt] at that might be liable to fall in case of a thaw, and will take steps to remove such tea as seen as possible.
HEARINGS BY THE FIRE MARSHAL.
The hearing conducted by Fire Marshal Prial, regarding the origin of the Equitable fire, was concluded at Fire Headquarters in the afternoon. Sixteen witnesses had been summoned at last reports, and, with very few exceptions, their stories coincided. There remains only one witness of importance, Dominic [Rusae,] an employee of the Cafe Savarin, who was on duty at the hour the fire started. Before the conclusion of the hearings the Marshal said that he had determined to his satisfaction the cause of the fire. He is certain that it started in the booth of Philip O'Brien, a timekeeper at the Savarin, who was a witness yesterday, and admitted that he had lighted a match at five o'clock that morning to light the gas, and had then thrown it away while it was still burning.
Thursday,
"$200,000,000 IS TAKEN OUT,"
ENTRANCE EFFECTED TO STEEL VAULTS UNDER RUINS.
Walls of Equitable Building Still Bulging, but Authorities Allow Cars to Run Down Broadway—Firemen Work in Wreckage—Walsh's Body Not Found, but the Search Goes On.
Contrary to expectations, there was no trouble in entering the Mercantile Trust Company's vaults on the first floor of the burned Equitable building this afternoon, and within two hours locksmiths had given the officers of the company the opportunity to remove $200,000,000 worth of stocks and bonds, all absolutely undamaged by fire or water.
Wall Street and the financial district generally heard this news with relief, while the crowds watching the operations outside the fire lines soon realized that the grocery carts waiting at the curb outside the ice-draped ruins were carrying fortunes, instead of vegetables. The little tin security boxes were piled in orderly rows in the spaces behind the driver's seats ---millions and tens of millions of paper in each wagon. It was said that the deep basement vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company would not be entered for three or four days
While the wagons drew up in Pine Street, just around the corner from Broadway, and tacked up to a side door under orders from the men superintending the removal of the securities, a strong force of police stood around, though there were comparatively few persons in the immediate neighborhood. As each wagon drove off, a group of patrolmen marched on each flank and behind. Most of the wagons were shabby affairs.
It had not been expected by any except the most optimistic that the securities would be reached before to-night. In fact, the secretary of the Stock Exchange posted the statement shortly after the opening of business, extending to Monday the time limit for delivery of securities involved in the fire. In the afternoon it looked as if the suspension of deliveries would be terminated within the next few hours.
WALLS BULGE, BUT STAND.
After a careful examination of the bulging walls of the Equitable building, the city authorities decided that it would be safe to allow the resumption of service by the Broadway surface cars. Engineers of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, who tested the walls of the subway, running almost underneath the wrecked building, said it would be safe to continue to run underground trains, although it was possible that the Interborough might decide later to ask for permission to build a roof of cross ties over Broadway, thus conflicting with the street car service.
That the danger of the wrecked building's collapse was by no means at an end was proved, however, by the refusal of the police and firemen to allow any tenants to remain in the sixteen-story skyscraper of the American Exchange National Bank, across the way at Cedar Street and Broadway. Other buildings on the Cedar Street block between Broadway and Nassau Street were likewise barred to their occupants as a precaution.
A survey of the Equitable building's walls showed that the Broadway front was eighteen inches out of plumb, having settled backward upon the two side walls along Pine and Cedar Streets. Under the pressure of the front wall, the Cedar Street side of the building had been shoved out until it hung two feet over the sidewalk below, leaning dangerously toward the buildings on the north side of the street. The exact distortion of the Pine Street wall had not been calculated, but it was enough to cause a long, jagged crack running diagonally through several stories. Any sudden increase in temperature or the springing up of a strong gale of wind might have disastrous effects upon the tottering Equitable wreck.
EQUITABLE NOT "SEEKING SITE."
Reports that the Equitable Life Assurance Society was negotiating for a new site upon which to build a modern skyscraper home were denied by E. E. Rittenhouse, conservation commissioner of the Society. While many offers of sites and buildings had poured in, the officers had been too busy with other matters to give them any thought.
The menace in the wrecked building did not seem to effect onlookers in its neighborhood, as a matter of fact. If the Broadway crowds that pressed up to the fire lines, with all the eager curiosity that they had exhibited since the spectacle was first provided for them on Tuesday, had any appreciation of the destruction and danger involved in the collapse of the building, they failed to give indication of it. Similarly, the wreckers and street cleaners engaged in clearing the structure of ice and debris moved about their tasks without seeming to fear. The glow of their lanterns flickered about the dark recesses of the lobby, reflected from the bronze statue of Henry B. Hyde, undamaged amid all the ruin about it, and the blows of their axes and spades could be heard outside in the street.
Most of the wreckers confined their attention to the huge heap of ice and fire-eaten timbers that towered two stories above the vaults of the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, at Broadway and Cedar Street. They were severely handicapped by the condition of the building.
Through the hours that had elapsed since the fire was quenched, those in charge of the damaged building had been worried, of course, over the contents of the various vaults. They realized that there were expert robbers who would willingly risk twenty years in Sing Sing for an opportunity to get an unobstructed hour in front of one of the combinations. With such a stake as was provided by the vast securities, it stood
(Continued on Page Thirteen.)
Page 13, Column 6,
$200,000,000 IS TAKEN OUT.
to reason that no crook would mind the risk from heat or collapsing walls any more than he would mind taking the chance of being discovered by a policeman—providing, always, that the sporting chance of success was present. So the police took no chances, particularly at night. In the dark hours, when the regular fire lines had been withdrawn, squads of detectives were at all strategic positions about the building and in the vicinity of the vaults, and a most rigid guard was maintained. All outsiders were prohibited from approaching. All through to-day, as yesterday, smoke rose from the ruins and three streams of water were played into the Cedar Street side near Broadway, from the upper windows of the American National Exchange Bank building, which was cleared of tenants yesterday afternoon in anticipation of the toppling of the Equitable building's walls. This smoke came from fires deep down in the cellars under the building, where the broken gas mains, which had been ignited Tuesday morning, still flared unchecked.
W. M. Bassett, vice-president of the American Exchange National Bank, received this afternoon the following from the superintendent of buildings:
"I have no objection to your occupying that building, as I consider the condition of the walls of the Equitable building to the South as not in sufficiently dangerous a condition as to vacate the premises, No. 136 Broadway. I can therefore see no objection to your occupying the building.*
When the odor of gas became as strong yesterday as to be discernible out in Broadway, the Consolidated Gas Company was notified, and last night a number of inspectors, together with a gang of laborers, uncovered the two mains feeding the pipes of the building. One of these mains next to Liberty street and Broadway, was eight inches in diameter; the other, sixteen inches in diameter, was at Pine Street and Broadway. When they were uncovered a stop was inserted in each, and shortly before [ ] o'clock in the morning the Fire Department was notified that no more gas could come into the building. But notwithstanding these precautions, there still was some fire in the cellars that afternoon.
WALSH'S BODY NOT FOUND.
At midnight last night Deputy Chief Binns relinquished command of the firemen in charge of the wrecked building, and Battalion Chief Gray of the Bronx succeeded him. One of the first things Gray did was to go to the fourth floor at the Cedar Street side, where a company went to work at daylight, to take up the hunt for the missing body of Battalion Chief W. F. Walsh. Later in the morning, some of the firemen thought they saw a man's body in a heap of ice-coated wreckage, and a [hurry call] was sent down for reinforcements. Chief Kenlon took them up himself, and with Father McGean, one of the Department chaplains, and Gray, took charge of the search. The report got about the city that Walsh's body had been found, and soon the telephones in all the buildings in the neighborhood were ringing with requests for information from all sources, including fire houses. But in a few minutes word filtered down to the street that the rescuers had been deceived. The "body" was only a piece of timber covered with ice.
"I don't think Walsh will he found for at least two days," said Gray. "The steel beams are so twisted that they are liable to fall [M a a y t l s s e.] and if the rescuers were working at such a time the death list would be increased."
When Gray was first approached by the Metropolitan Street Railway for authority to restore service, he refused the request, as had Binn the night before. Later, however, when the report of Randolph P. Miller, Building Superintendent, to Mr. McAneny, Borough President of Manhattan, was made public, the refusal of the street car company's request was rescinded. Miller said he did not think there was any immediate danger of the collapse of the walls of the Equitable building, nor did he fear the effects upon them of the vibration caused by passing cars and subway trains. His report, as [emplinoaten] of a verbal declaration yesterday, was as follows:
I have made a personal examination of the condition of the remaining outside walls of the Equitable building this afternoon, with reference to the safety of the streetcar traffic along Broadway. I am of the opinion that there need be no apprehension at any danger to passing street cars. I would, however, advise that pedestrian traffic and other vehicular traffic be prohibited, because of the possibility of the falling of small pieces of ice and building material, which, while it would not be sufficient to cause damage to the roof of a street car, might be serious for a person. The officials at the street railway company have assured me that they will keep a lookout for any [tannow aerassnlated aa the balldt] at that might be liable to fall in case of a thaw, and will take steps to remove such tea as seen as possible.
HEARINGS BY THE FIRE MARSHAL.
The hearing conducted by Fire Marshal Prial, regarding the origin of the Equitable fire, was concluded at Fire Headquarters in the afternoon. Sixteen witnesses had been summoned at last reports, and, with very few exceptions, their stories coincided. There remains only one witness of importance, Dominic [Rusae,] an employee of the Cafe Savarin, who was on duty at the hour the fire started. Before the conclusion of the hearings the Marshal said that he had determined to his satisfaction the cause of the fire. He is certain that it started in the booth of Philip O'Brien, a timekeeper at the Savarin, who was a witness yesterday, and admitted that he had lighted a match at five o'clock that morning to light the gas, and had then thrown it away while it was still burning.
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