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Show BAM VAULTS ABE OPENED ' I j IKI IMSUlRE ISKSIOfEi; . ..'NO DAMAGE. BY - THE-.- MEAT- ; ... . . . -. . . . . i I . : r . 5 Steel Cage in Ruins I -. of Atlas Block Stands , c J Test of Fire, and $125,-000 $125,-000 in Money and Sil: H : verware Is Sard : " ' - : The vaults of the Bank of Commejre ' in the ruins of the Atlas block were opened this morning and the funds and - j securities of the Institution were trans- ferred to the Walker Bros. bank. Not a f, dollar was lost and not a document was ( even charred by the heat. . Workmen began the labor of uncov- jj ering the vault as soon as it was com- paratively' safe to venture within the f walls. The work of cleaning away the debris was completed to such an extent that space was made for the opening of the , . big steel doors by 9:30 o'clock. Cashier on the Scene. As soon as this was done. Cashier E. W. Wilson and Paying Teller Arthur Brown were notified and went at once" j to the Bite of the ruins, with a covered j ' van. . i j The van was backed up to the curb '-' and the officials of the bank picked ; their way over the still smoking piles .1 of wreckage to the vault- - - . ' , , Messrs. Wilson and Brown then op- j erated the combination a few moments. : ! and the tumblers fell. The door was . M slightly warped by the Intense heat to which it had been subjected, but a lit- ( , tie. pressure from a crowbar opened it. It then swung back on its hinges and : exposed the inner vault door to view. j I Second Combination Intact tj The combination on this vault was even more easily manipulated than the , former one. and opened at a touch. Cashier Wilson looked Inside and said: "Everything Is all right. Brown." and ' stepping inside, began to carry out ; sacks of gold and currency. - The treasure was immediately trans- -' '! ' ferred to the van, and. under a guard. -- ' wae altett Wa":eT Urns. bank, where . ! t the Bank of Commerce has its tempo- 1 rary headquarters. I Not V Note Scorched. As soon as the money was safely "in- cated in that bank. Paying Teller j Brown began the work of inspection. ,, Bag after bag of gold was opened and ' A the contents counted. Bale after bale of currency of every denomination was heaped upon the counters and hurriedly opened. ' - - t Not a bank note was shriveled, pot 4 a security was scorched, and not a gold piece was tarnished. Silverware Is Removed. I The safety deposit vaults were opened and the silverware and other valuables were removed to the bank. Not an ar- tide showed a sign of the effects of the ; terrific heat which had played around the vaults for so many hours. ' While Cashier Wilson declined to discuss dis-cuss the matter,1 it Is estimated that ' there was $75,000 in money and $50,000 worth of family plate In the vaults. i. The Bank of Commerce will conduct its business from the Walker Bros. bank for a week or two, until suitable i quarters can be secured. No steps have J been taken to secure other quarters, and all business will be transacted as though nothing unusual had occurred. ; ORIGIN OF FIRE IS ' ! STILL SOURCE Of MYSTERY TO All j The mystery which surrounded the orlirin of the destructive fire which burned the Atlas and Central blocks and caused a property loss of nearly a ? half-million dollars, besides endanger- j Ing the lives of the half-dozen tenanta t who were In the bulldirgs, yesterday morning, is still unfathomed. It has not yet been determined where ': the fire started whether in the base-. ;, ment, the elevator shaft or on the ! fourth floor. Nor has it been deter- i mined whether the destructive bl7. j: was started by a defective wire, a care- ltosly thrown match or an incendiary. ) W. E. Lake, superintendent of the j Mock, scouts the theory that the blJT j building was maliciously burned, as does Chief Devine of the Fire department. depart-ment. - " Lighted Match Theory. ' That'a match or cigarette might have ! started the fire is very possible. There were three entrances from the Oxford saloon to the hallway of the building. A person passing from the saloon x the street by way of the Atlas block hall might have thrown a lighted match into the elevator shaft where the flames , may have originated. The Central block will be rebuilt at once. It is possible that It may be changed to a five or six-story building. The foundations are for a Blx-story structure. y Work of clearing away the ruins of the Atlas block will be begun at once. Already workmen have begun to tear down the walls which were left standing stand-ing and which were a menace to pedestrians. pe-destrians. Many Safes in Rains. As soon as the walls are razed, the ; work of removing the'many safes which . were in the offices will be commenced. There are about forty safes in the ruins and they are covered with plies ' of brick, stone, twisted iron and other -debris to a depth of several feet. ; Many of these safes held valuable '- ' " T- ? ; Continued on page - A kSIES";i MNY;TiiE3RIES MVAN'CED - -' . Insurance Adjusters - Are Arriving: in the . City, and Work of Determining Determin-ing Amount of; Losses Will Begin : (Continued from Page 1.) papers and records that it will be hafd to replace. In many Instances their loss will be irreparable. Some of the safes, in falling and - crashing through the floors to the basement, base-ment, may have been sprung. . Such being be-ing the 'case the fire and water could reach the contents and 'despoil them. Criticised by Tuttle. H. B. Tuttle, insurance man, .Is wrathful on account of the fire and the way in which it was handled. He said: " "We represent over $1,000,000 worth of resident property in the'eity,.- all of which Is liable to fire, and the owners of this property deserve adequate protection pro-tection against fire. The property holders hold-ers are entitled to a fire department that is fully competent to. cope with any suffered will not result seriously, and that he will have rpovered in a few days.. . , - : .... . . Fireman L.' D. Watts was able to do light duty at . the department headquarters headquar-ters this morning. A few days' ' rest I will be given him in. order that a slight internal injury- may have an opportunity opportuni-ty to thoroughly heal. , ; FIRE DEPARTMENT IS t POORLY. EQUIPPED," SAYS THIS INSURANCE MAN. " ' "-.' - ' ' - ' ; H. E. Parkhurst of the Board of Underwriters Un-derwriters of the Pacific coast, said this morning that the fire was. handled remarkably re-markably well by the firemen, but he depldYed the lack of equipment.. He said : . ' "No department on . earth, of equal size and similarly equipped, could have handled a. fire of such proportions any better .than did Chief Devine and his crew. . 'The fact that the department was not large enough,, and that there was exceedingly poor, equipment at its command com-mand made the work of keeping the fire within the area that. It 'did. a re-imarkably re-imarkably fine piece of -work. . It was remarkable .that the fire'did not spread. With ' three openings into the P. F. Walker block none of these protected by fire doors, I cannot understand how that building was saved. 'With that entire square exposed to the flames, I cannot see how the adjoining ad-joining properties were saved. . It was nothing short of marvelous that the whole square did not go. The Are department de-partment certainly deserves credit for a good piece of work in confining the fire to the two buildings." .. .' ! ADJUSTERS WILL AT ONCE BEGIN WORK OF SETTLING THE LOSSES. : H. E. Parkhurst of the Board of Fire Underwriters of the Pacific was unable i today to give an. estimate as .to the probable loss sustained In the fire. , He said that he believed all the losses would be adjusted at an early date. In cases of fires of such magnitude representatives repre-sentatives of the companies Interested usually hold a meeting at San Francisco Francis-co and select Insurance adjusters to act for allcompanies involved. These ad-. Justers usually proceed at once to the rcene of the fire and adjust all losses. This plan would probably be followed in-this instance and the losses would be adjusted at once. r condition that may. arise. There shouldn't be any delays' or any machin- , . ery out of gear. The people pay for protection and they should have it." It is possible that the fire and its attendant losses may result in a meeting meet-ing of insurance men who will again advance the rates on all risks in the city. Chief Deyine's Stpry., Chief Devine said tliat'whlle the department de-partment -was .short-handed, the work was done Just as quickly as possible with a force-so small. He declared the engines were in excellent - order and H'aVa nut " 1.- V. . "vie ui l-f nuiA- ai uulc aiici iiicji arrival on the scene, ', He said it took time to lay lines of hose over roofs and housetops and only two 'or three men could be put on a hose. The men are human, he said,, and cannot do superhuman super-human tasks. Furthermore, he said that two lines of hose were cut by the falling walls, thereby shutting off a part of his water supply. Insurance Claims Paid. - 1 Several minor claims for insurance were paid yesterday by the oompanies carrying risks on the two buildings, but the proofs of loss and the payment of the larger claims will not be made for several days. More than J300.000 will be paid in insurance in-surance when the losses are adjusted. One agency carried $84,000 and another policies aggregating $21,000 on property involved in the loss. . The insurance on the Central . block was carried as follows: Springfield .; $ 4,500 National 8.500 London Insurance 2.500 Qupen 2,500 rhoenix of Hartford 2.5oO Koyal 7.50O Thuringia . . 2.500 'Phoenix of Brooklyn 2,0u0 C!erman-Amerlca 2.fK) Home of Now York , ,. fi.O) Home of I'tah........ ....'....'..... 2,500 .'ontinental 2,5"jO ' ' Other companies 3,000 Total $52,000 Insurance on rentals..... 11,200 Partial List of Losses. A partial list of losses which the- varl-ous varl-ous insurance companies will have to pay follows: ' ' Queen Salt Lake Hardware com pany, $4000;vWhitaker. & Dallas, $1000; Oxford saloon, $1000. Springfield Atlas block, $2500. National Atlas block, $5000; Salt Lake Hardware company, $2500. North American Salt Lake Hardware Hard-ware company, $0000; Oxford saloon, $5000; C. IL Griffin. $500. German American Whitaker & Dallas. Dal-las. $1000; Oxford saloon. $1500. Phoenix of Hartford Salt Lake Hardware company, $2500; Oxford saloon, sa-loon, $5000. Citizens-Oxford. $2500. Connecticut Oxford, $000: Salt Lake Hardware company, $2500; Dr. J. C. E. King, $300. Helvetia Salt Lake Hardware company, com-pany, $2500; Western Exploration company, com-pany, $1000. Law, Union & Crown Salt Lake "Hardware company, $2500. Franklin Dr. A. C. Humelbaugh, fecO; Salt Lake Hardware company, $500; George L. Nye, $1000; -M. L. Ogleeby, $500.. . - Allemannta Salt Lake Hardware . company, $1000; Snyder, Westervelt, Snyder & Wight. $1750; John H. Reilly, $500; Dr. M. R. Stewart, $250. Westchester Atlas block, $5000; Whitaker & Dallas. $1000. American of Newark Atlas block, $5000; Salt Lake Hardware company, $12,500. American Atlas block. $5000. Home Fire & Marine Atlas block, $J2,500; same, rentals, $5000. Pennsylvania Atlas block, $2500. Thuringia Atlas block, rentals, $10,-. $10,-. 000. The Heaviest Losers. The total loss is estimated at about $400,000. The heaviest losers' and the Insurance they carried are: Lops. Insurance. Atlas building $in.ono $ TS.flno Office valuabU-s 2V0 lt,f Central building W.OOO 53,04 Hardware company ll'5.0 lUO.OiO Bank of Commerce '. JOiOO 4.500 Oxford saloon 20.0CO 23.000 The personal losses will bring the j amount up to $400,000. The losses of the lawyers and doctors will be particularly heavy, and will include in-clude valuables that in many cases can never be replaced. . The Pacific Express company lost all Its records for the ' division between Cheyenne and San Francisco, but these are duplicated. Dr. Boatty lost a library li-brary valued at $2500, his surgical instruments in-struments valued at $1000 and all the records of the State health statistics. Dr.. Stewart's library was a valuable one, while his instruments were worth $4000.' Judge Hoge's library was valued at $5000 and George L. Nye lost $3000 worth of legal books, with $1500 Insurance. Insur-ance. INJURED FIRE HEROES ' IMPROVING AND WILL SOON RETURN TO WORK. . Lieut. Albert R. Williams, who was injured yesterday morning. In the Atlas . ' block fire by being struck by a portion of the falling wall, is resting comforta- bly today. Dr. C F..Pinkerton, who is attending him, says ' that the injuries Williams |