1906 San Francisco earthquake

The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake at San Francisco, California on the early morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906. Foreshocks and the main quake occurred at about 5:12am along the San Andreas Fault, with an epicenter close to the city. Its violent shocks were felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. The earthquake and fire would go down as one of the worst natural disasters to hit a major city in United States history (see also the Galveston Hurricane and Hurricane Katrina).

Subsequent fires

As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterwards destroyed much more property. Fires broke out in many parts of town, some initially fueled by natural gas mains broken by the quake. Other fires were the result of arson, and campfires set by refugees. Some property owners set fire to their damaged buildings, because most insurance policies covered fire losses while prohibiting payment if the building had just sustained earthquake damage. Captain Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corps reported that he "was stopped by a fireman who told me that people in that neighborhood were firing their houses...They were told that they would not get their insurance on buildings damaged by the earthquake unless they were damaged by fire."

Related Topics:
Aftershock - Natural gas

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As water mains were also broken, the city fire department had few resources to fight the fires with. Several fires in the downtown area merged to become one giant inferno. One journalist at the time wrote that readers elsewhere should understand that it was not a fire in San Francisco, but rather a fire of San Francisco. The fire ultimately destroyed over 500 city blocks of the downtown core from Van Ness Avenue, an arterial thoroughfare that bisects the center of the city, to the docks at the San Francisco Bay.

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The mayor Eugene Schmitz and General Frederick Funston declared martial law, even though they did not have the authority to do so. They tried to bring the fire under control by detonating blocks of buildings around the fire to create fire breaks, but the black powder they used set the building remains on fire.

Related Topics:
Eugene Schmitz - Frederick Funston - Martial law

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