The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-01-19

New York Equitable Life Build
ing is Complete Loss.
Six Known Dead; Many injured
Money Loss SO. 900, oOo-vaults
Full Of Wealth.

Assurance society, covering a block on
Lower Broadway, a historic landmark
of New York's early period of sky
scraper buildings and one of the city's
important financial centers, was de-
stroyed by fire January with loss
of at least six lives and probably &c.
600, 200 in property. Twelve persons
were injured.
The fire started in the kitchen of a
restaurant in the basement of the
building.
Valuable records, including the BIZ
ography Of E. H. Hartman, and two
priceless Libraries which cannot be re-
placed, went up in flames, and the
fate of hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of securities, stored in safe de-
posit vaults, is in question, although
it is believed that freproof construc-
tion saved them from damage.
The great structure, which besides
containing the main Offices of the
Equitable Life Assurance society, was
the home of the Mercantile Trust COM
pany, the Equitable Trust company,
the banking house of Kountze Broth
ers, August Belmont & Company, the
Hartman railroad lines, the Mercan-
tile Safe Deposit company, the Law
yer's club and many Of the city's most
prominent law firms, stands shell of
coated stone.
The intense cold caused a thick
coating to form on the facades of sky
crapers adjacent and on the pavement
for blocks around. The bulwark of
modern freproof structures nearby,
according to Fire Commissioner john
son, protected the entire financial dis
trict. The damage, except by water,
was confined to the Equitable struc-
ture.
Of those who lost their lives, three
employees of the building were killed
by jumping from the roof to which
they were driven by the flames.
Battalion Chief Wash dropped in a
whirl of smoke and flame when cave
in occurred on the third floor. Two
other men, William Campion, captain
Of the watchmen in the Mercantile
Safe Deposit company, vaults, and
Frank J. Neider, special officer,
whose bodies have not been recovered,
complete the list of dead, SO far as
known.
Several persons, watchmen and
others, who were in the structure
when the fire broke out, have not been
accounted for, but are believed to
have escaped. The death total, how
ever, may not be fixed until the fire
has been entirely extinguished and the
ruins have had time to cool.
Among the injured is w. ]. Giblin,
president of the Mercantile Safe De-
posit company, whose rescue from the
basement vaults, where he was i'm
prisoned, after two hours work by
firemen, was one of the most seDsa-
tional episodes of the fire. He had
gone into vault to save securities
and accidentally locked himself in
with an employee who had accom-
panied him.
Their cries were heard by the fire.
men, who had to saw through the steel
bars of door leading to the street be-
fore they could rescue the imprisoned
men. Mr.. Giblin was taken to a hos
pital suffering from the effects of the
smoke.
One man in another vault Of the
Mercantile Safe Deposit company, be-
lieved to be Campion, could be seen
from the street with his legs pinned
down by mass of debris, but could
not be rescued because steel doors
barred the way. Through the smashed
windows of the doors the last rites
were administered by Chaplain Nc
Gean, of the fire department just as
he was swallowed from view by the
dense smoke.