. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. construction. The fire got its start in flimsyold wooden buildings, that should have been clearedaway long ago. For years the Fire Department hadbeen fighting fires there, always with the fear ofa conflagration, but always with success—for then ithad water and could concentrate itself against onefoe. But when dozens of fires burst out at once onApril 18 conditions were different. In other partsof the city—in the Mission and Western Addition,for instance—a scant suppl
. A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results. construction. The fire got its start in flimsyold wooden buildings, that should have been clearedaway long ago. For years the Fire Department hadbeen fighting fires there, always with the fear ofa conflagration, but always with success—for then ithad water and could concentrate itself against onefoe. But when dozens of fires burst out at once onApril 18 conditions were different. In other partsof the city—in the Mission and Western Addition,for instance—a scant supply of water from mainsand sewers sufficed to put out the fires; but along thewater-front they became uncontrollable, althoughthe inexhaustible waters of the bay were at the rookeries in which the fires startedbecame huge kindling piles for the large buildingsnearby. Mission street, from Fremont to Fourth,was built up of fine new buildings, mostly of brickwith wooden interiors; the wholesale district wasfull of similar structures of an earlier date but equalsturdiness. Such, however, were little better than. ^ -U^ Photo by Aitken Unburned Block on Upper Montgomery Street 22i) A STUDY OF THE FIRE wooden ones when once the fire gained headwayamong them. It was in buildings of this sort thatthe fire north of Market street raged all the firstday: and they, in turn, created a general conflagra-tion which even the fireproof structures could notwithstand. Finally, when the fire reached the framedistricts beyond Chinatown and in the Mission, itscourse was most rapid and its extent so vast thatnothing could stop it, except the great width of aboulevard. The width of the streets over which the firejumped is of interest. South of Market, the streetswere eighty feet wide, but there the fires ragedall around, and almost in every block. Then, too,the great size of each block (825 x 550 feet) madethe fire in each a conflagration in itself. In thewholesale district the fire made
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidhistoryofear, bookyear1906
