. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. houses. Amongthe throngs of watchers, too, were many anxious to A STUDY OF THE FIRE 229 be doing something to help; many, even, who recog-nized the psychological moment when such orsuch a thing might be done to good effect. Allalike, however, were excluded from the fire line,except in certain rare instances where determinedmen forced their way through the guards. The success of parties of volunteers in fightingthe flames where they were allowed to do so in-dicates th
. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. houses. Amongthe throngs of watchers, too, were many anxious to A STUDY OF THE FIRE 229 be doing something to help; many, even, who recog-nized the psychological moment when such orsuch a thing might be done to good effect. Allalike, however, were excluded from the fire line,except in certain rare instances where determinedmen forced their way through the guards. The success of parties of volunteers in fightingthe flames where they were allowed to do so in-dicates that much good might have been accom-plished if everyone had not been driven away. TheMint, the Postoffice and the Appraisers Buildingwere saved by the timely use of a scant water sup-ply by those who stayed in the buildings; the Pal-ace Hotel held out for hours for the same reason. Apart from the fire, too, it is unfortunate thatthese orders were enforced so rigidly that many afamily was able to save only what it could snatchup at the time of its eviction. In these cases thefire was almost invariably several blocks off, and. Photo by Waters Breaking of Tile and Buckling of Columns inAronson Building A STUDY OF THE FIRE there was plenty of lime for the men among thosedriven out to make a trip to their homes and returnwith much property of value, and many things thatwould have added materially to the comfort of the City Hall, too, soldiers for a time preventedthe removal of the Recorders books, and whenfinally they were prevailed upon to allow this tobe done, it was too late to save more than a fewhundred of the thousands stored there. Were a similar fire to start now, San Franciscowould know how to use its engines to pump waterfrom the bay, and how to use dynamite to advan-tage and fight fire with fire. Indeed, while the cityburned the knowledge of how to conquer the flameswas acquired. It is no discredit to anyone to say
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