The Mena weekly star., 1912-01-18
ONE HALF BILLION
 LIE UNDER RUINS
ti0 Policemen Guard Bulk of IIar- riman, Gould, Ryan and Belmont Estate Securities-62- Story
 Building May Cover Site.

New York, Jan. iO-More than half a billion dollars in securities lie in the glowing ruins of the Equitable building today, guarded by il0 policemen. The bulk of the Hartman, Gould, Ryan and Bel mont estates is locked in the massive steel vaults, buried be- heath hundreds of tons of debris With streams still playing upon the |smouldering ruins, laborers are fighting their way to the vaults which, it is believed, remain intact.
 Records of the Hartman lines, showing the names and addresses of 10000 stockholders, were lost. A duplicate set of the names without the addresses was kept by the Mer- cantile Trust Company. It is not known whether these have been destroyed. If they are, it will be necessary to advertise for names and addresses of stockholders. A white hot furnace still glowed flercely in the cellars of the ruined Equitable building at daybreak to- day, resisting all efforts of the fire men to drown out the flames. Chief kendon doubted whether the fire would be completely extinguished before nightfall. The blaze is now conflned, however, to the heaped- up ruins in the cellars, for above the first story nothing is left save the granite walls, barred with en- crustations of gleaming ice pilas- ters and ornaments bearing coat ings Of ice which in some places is two feet thick, while the surface ol Broadway and the other streets surrounding the ruins is sheatheC with ice to a depth of from one tC three feet. All night long, under the glare of three powerful search lights from the Singer tower, ice coyered Bremen poured in streams from 20 nozzles.
 In addition to the established lines maintained by the police, iOC policemen and 70 detectives are as- signed to the task of preventing the theft of any money or securi- ties still in the building. There were no additions to the list ol casualties during the early morn ling hours today.
 | The official police blotter gives six dead, two missing and g in- ljured. One of the dead is still un- Identified, and the body of William IJ. Walsh, battalion chief of the fire department, has not yet been re- Icovered. The body of William Campion, captain of the watchmcT Iof the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company, was visible at daybreal through the iron grating at the en- trance of the company's vaults. Int lother dead are Joseph Cont, Johr Sazzio and Massena Fratta, all em- ployes of the restaurant where the blaze started.
 The missing men are two watch men employed by the safe deposit company.
 | Most of tho i37 tenants of tn, Burning building were established in new headquarters in nearby sky scrapers today. The Equitable Life executives found themselye. amply provided for on three floor, lof the City Investing building, { block away.
 Whether a new and more mag nlticent home will be erected or the same site for the Equitable Life is question into which enters sew eral elements of doubt. The site IS the most valuable single piece ot property in New York City, and for several years plans have been on file with the city building depart ment for the erection there of a 62-slory building to cost s25 .0O0. .O01 The building would be the tallest building in the world, 200 feet higher than the Singer tower and l50 feet loftier than the Woolworth now being constructed.