. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. alarms had cut it up into smallsquads, and scattered them along a great skirmishline. Some found the hydrants dry from the first;others for a time had water. Most of the latter wereeffectively fighting their separate fires; others weretoo few in numbers, too limited of apparatus, to domore than fight and fight, and hope for reinforce-ments. None of them were impotent, all had cour-age and grit and training; but their task was toogreat, their isolation from their brot
. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. alarms had cut it up into smallsquads, and scattered them along a great skirmishline. Some found the hydrants dry from the first;others for a time had water. Most of the latter wereeffectively fighting their separate fires; others weretoo few in numbers, too limited of apparatus, to domore than fight and fight, and hope for reinforce-ments. None of them were impotent, all had cour-age and grit and training; but their task was toogreat, their isolation from their brothers too com-plete. And as they fought and fought, and hoped forreinforcements, the streams from the fire hose dwin-dled away. Puzzled, confused, the men stood help-less, with the nozzles empty in their hands. Thenthe truth dawned upon them that the mains hadbeen broken by the earthquake, and that the supplyof millions of gallons stored in the reservoirs wasseeping itself away into the soil, useless in this hourof greatest need. Serious as this loss of the water was, it was thebreaking out of so many fires at once, and the. 64 THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRE absence of their chief, even more than the faihngwater, that made the task of the firemen so many places came the call for more men; andfrom the hearts of many men in anguish went forththe prayer for the chief to come — the chief theyfelt to be equal to the emergency. Foreseeing such a conflagration as had juststarted, forethinking even of a water supply cut Sullivan had been perfecting his plans throughmany years. In his own mind he knew what wouldbe best to do. He had the confidence of his could count on them to carry out unquestionablywhatever heroic measures might be necessary. Andnow that the long-feared event had arrived, thosemen fought on and prayed for his coming, not know-ing, then, that he was among the first victims of thetemblor. It is known, now, that all that were lack-ing were lead
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