SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE & FIRE 4/18/1906

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431

1906 San Francisco earthquake​

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died, and over 80 percent of the city was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest earthquakes in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the lists of American disasters.

Earthquake

USGS ShakeMap showing the earthquake's intensity
The 1906 earthquake preceded the development of the Richter magnitude scale by three decades. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the quake on the modern moment magnitude scale is 7.9; values from 7.7 to as high as 8.3 have been proposed.[8] According to findings published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, severe deformations in the earth's crust took place both before and after the earthquake's impact. Accumulated strain on the faults in the system was relieved during the earthquake, which is the supposed cause of the damage along the 450-kilometre-long (280 mi) segment of the San Andreas plate boundary.[8] The 1906 rupture propagated both northward and southward for a total of 296 miles (476 km).[9] Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and as far inland as central Nevada.

A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. There were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California – before the 1906 quake. Previously interpreted as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and are now believed to be due to large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush.

For years, the epicenter of the quake was assumed to be near the town of Olema, in the Point Reyes area of Marin County, due to local earth displacement measurements. In the 1960s, a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed that the epicenter was more likely offshore of San Francisco, to the northwest of the Golden Gate. The most recent analyses support an offshore location for the epicenter, although significant uncertainty remains.[2] An offshore epicenter is supported by the occurrence of a local tsunami recorded by a tide gauge at the San Francisco Presidio; the wave had an amplitude of approximately 3 inches (7.6 cm) and an approximate period of 40–45 minutes.

Analysis of triangulation data before and after the earthquake strongly suggests that the rupture along the San Andreas Fault was about 500 kilometres (310 mi) in length, in agreement with observed intensity data. The available seismological data support a significantly shorter rupture length, but these observations can be reconciled by allowing propagation at speeds above the S-wave velocity (supershear). Supershear propagation has now been recognized for many earthquakes associated with strike-slip faulting.

Recently, using old photographs and eyewitness accounts, researchers were able to estimate the location of the hypocenter of the earthquake as offshore from San Francisco or near the city of San Juan Bautista, confirming previous estimates.

Damage​

290px-SanFranHouses06.jpg
Damaged houses on Howard Street
0419_San_Francisco_Earthquake_-_The_New_York_Times.jpg
Seismographs on the U.S. east coast recorded the earthquake some 19 minutes later; some early death estimates exceeded 500.

Early death counts ranged from 375 to over 500. However, hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain, but various reports presented a range of 700–3,000+. In 2005, the city's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in support of a resolution written by novelist James Dalessandro ("1906") and city historian Gladys Hansen ("Denial of Disaster") to recognize the figure of 3,000 plus as the official total. Most of the deaths occurred in San Francisco itself, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities, such as Santa Rosa and San Jose, also suffered severe damage. In Monterey County, the earthquake permanently shifted the course of the Salinas River near its mouth. Where previously the river emptied into Monterey Bay between Moss Landing and Watsonville, it was diverted 6 miles (9.7 km) south to a new channel just north of Marina.

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.

The earthquake and fire left long-standing and significant pressures on the development of California. At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth-largest city in the United States and the largest on the West Coast, with a population of about 410,000. Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade, and cultural center of the West; operated the busiest port on the West Coast; and was the "gateway to the Pacific", through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Though San Francisco rebuilt quickly, the disaster diverted trade, industry, and population growth south to Los Angeles, which during the 20th century became the largest and most important urban area in the West. Many of the city's leading poets and writers retreated to Carmel-by-the-Sea where, as "The Barness", they established the arts colony reputation that continues today.

The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led and edited by Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well. The earthquake was the first natural disaster of its magnitude to be documented by photography and motion picture footage and occurred at a time when the science of seismology was blossoming.

Fires​



px-San_Francisco_Fire_Sacramento_Street_1906-04-18.jpg
Arnold Genthe's photograph, looking toward the fire on Sacramento Street

As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were even more destructive. It has been estimated that up to 90% of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires. Within three days, over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. Some were started when San Francisco Fire Department firefighters, untrained in the use of dynamite, attempted to demolish buildings to create firebreaks. The dynamited buildings themselves often caught fire. The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, who would have been responsible for coordinating firefighting efforts, had died from injuries sustained in the initial quake. In total, the fires burned for four days and nights.

Due to a widespread practice by insurers to indemnify San Francisco properties from fire, but not earthquake damage, most of the destruction in the city was blamed on the fires. Some property owners deliberately set fire to damaged properties, to claim them on their insurance. Capt. 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".

200px-Sfearthquake3b.jpg
hquake_-_Geographicus_-_SanFrancisco-humphrey-1907.jpg
Burning of the Mission District (left) and a map showing the extent of the fire

One landmark building lost in the fire was the Palace Hotel, subsequently rebuilt, which had many famous visitors, including royalty and celebrated performers. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco". In April 1906, the tenor Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company came to San Francisco to give a series of performances at the Grand Opera House. The night after Caruso's performance in Carmen, the tenor was awakened in the early morning in his Palace Hotel suite by a strong jolt. Clutching an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso made an effort to get out of the city, first by boat and then by train, and vowed never to return to San Francisco. Caruso died in 1921, having remained true to his word. The Metropolitan Opera Company lost all of its traveling sets and costumes in the earthquake and ensuing fires.


Some of the greatest losses from fire were in scientific laboratories. Alice Eastwood, the curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, is credited with saving nearly 1,500 specimens, including the entire type specimen collection for a newly discovered and extremely rare species, before the remainder of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was destroyed in the fire. The entire laboratory and all the records of Benjamin R. Jacobs, a biochemist who was researching the nutrition of everyday foods, were destroyed. The original California flag used in the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt at Sonoma, which at the time was being stored in a state building in San Francisco, was also destroyed in the fire.

The fire following the earthquake in San Francisco cost an estimated $350 million at the time (equivalent to $7.75 billion in 2020). The devastating quake leveled about 80% of the city.


 

Attachments

  • 1650263567613.png
    1650263567613.png
    68 bytes · Views: 0

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
 

mack

Administrator
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Messages
13,431
sf1.gif

Great Fires: 1906 Great Earthquake & Fire
1906 Great Earthquake & Fire​

burningcity5.jpg
The fire that destroyed a great part of San Francisco in three days, beginning April 18, 1906, was the greatest conflagration humans have ever witnessed.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, the first jarring shock of an earthquake struck at 5:12.06 AM and lasted 28 seconds. On that fateful morning the population was awakened to the terrifying spectacle of their city's destruction. Within a few hours 52 fires had started, many of which would have been general alarm blazes even under ordinary conditions. Before the flames were extinguished three days later, 478 persons were dead, including the Chief of the Fire Department, Dennis T. Sullivan, and the property loss was $350,000,000. The area burned was 4.7 miles square miles, which included all of the downtown territory.

A two-alarm fire had broken out during the earlier part of the morning at Bay and Mason Streets, and most of the firemen in the downtown district had just turned in, dead tired, when the quake struck. The entire alarm system went out at the first shock. Of the 600 glass wet batteries operating the system, the earthquake broke 556 of them. As a result, not one alarm was ever sounded for this greatest of all fires!

The main reservoirs for the city were twenty miles away; six miles of the distance was disclosed to be along the quake's "fault line" and was destroyed. Other pipe lines turned out to be in filled ground and were broken. Water had to be sucked from the cisterns that were soon dry, even from the large main sewers.

A Chinese laundry on the south side of Howard near Third was one of the first to catch fire. It was across the street from No. 4 Engine. There was no water to fight with, and it soon got out of control. Hydrant after hydrant was tested without getting a drop.

Far out in the Western Addition two big fires had broken out within two blocks of each other; another was burning at the corner of 22nd and Mission Streets. Downtown, dozens of fires were breaking out. Three engines, working tandem, pumped water 3,000 feet to put out the Western Addition fires; water found blocks away subdued the Mission Street fire. The apparatus worked its way toward the enormous fire downtown.

Two State fireboats and Navy tugs were battling waterfront fires. The blasting of huge buildings was resorted to, but giant powder and nitro-glycerine being used, the explosions only spread the flames.
1906_1.jpg

While most of the department fought downtown, companies were also fighting large fires at Hayes and Laguna, Buchanan and Hayes, Golden Gate and Buchanan, Fulton and Octavia, and smaller ones in many other sections. A fire that started at Hayes and Gough several hours after the earthquake, got out of control because there was no water near. It swept over the Western Addition of Octavia and south of Golden Gate Avenue, crossed Market near Ninth and turned into the Mission district until stopped at Twentieth Street on the third day by water from a cistern at Nineteenth and Shotwell and one hydrant at Church and Twentieth. It was prevented from crossing wide Dolores Street by volunteers with buckets and wet sacks.

The break in the 24-inch main on Howard and Seventeenth washed out a large hole, which soon filled with water. From that sump, four engines pumped.

The department never stopped fighting, its men dropping from exhaustion and sleeping as they lay in the streets for a few minutes and then getting up and going after the fire again. It was almost impossible to get feed or water for the horses, and sometimes even fresh water for the boiler. Near the waterfront fresh water was taken off ships for the engines. That's how scarce water was.

The fire had reached such proportions that a cistern at Second and Folsom Streets, holding 100,000 gallons, was drained without making the slightest impression. Most of the big downtown fires had combined into one, with the oncoming flames having at one time a three-mile front. The firemen, backing away doggedly and fighting without coordination because all communication had gone, began slowly to hem in the fire as dynamiting and small water supplies were effective on the outskirts.

It was heart-breaking work, for time after time when it seemed a fire was being beaten, the water slowed from the hydrants or cisterns and then dribbled to a stop. Then came the search for another "tap." A strong west wind had sprung up too, causing great difficulty. Word that their beloved Chief Engineer Dennis T. Sullivan was dying from earthquake injuries spurred the men on to make a valiant battle for him, as he would have wanted done, had he been able to direct them.

1906_2.jpg
Relentlessly the flames went on through the days and nights of the 18th, 19th and 20th. In the early dawn of April 21, the great fire had been beaten. The department had finally won, but at tremendous cost. The department lost twenty of its installations and fourteen pieces of equipment. More than one half of all department hose also was destroyed by the flames. Its highest ranking officer was dead. But the fire was out at last.

Due to the heroic efforts of San Francisco firemen, assisted by soldiers, sailors, policemen, and the citizens of the city, much of Old San Francisco was saved. It was due to the fact that the San Francisco Fire Department was modern for its time that the Great Fire following the earthquake of April 18, 1906 was not far more disastrous.



REPORT OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT​

On April 17, 1906, the Fire Department of the City and County of San Francisco was composed of 38 steam fire engine companies, 10 hook and ladder truck companies. 7 chemical engine companies, 1 water tower company, and 2 monitor batteries, with a unformed force of 584 men. They were in good condition and in regular service in the Department at that time.

In addition to the above, there was also the following apparatus for relief, emergency and other purposes: 14 steam fire engines, 16 hose wagons, 2 water towers, 4 hook and ladder trucks, 14 officer's buggies, 6 hydrant carts, 10 delivery wagons, 2 supply wagons,1 crane-neck truck, 1 oil tank wagon, 1 horse ambulance, 1 hay wagon.

The buildings of the Department then consisted of 44 engine houses, 2 corporation yards and repair shops, 2 drill towers, the Department stables, and corporation yard stables and headquarters of battalion chief, making fifty buildings in all.

At Twenty-second and Mission Street, a fire broke out in a large three-story building, that was occupied as a dry-goods store, and which occupied nearly a quarter of a block. Through the energetic efforts of the engine companies stationed in that immediate vicinity, and with the aid of what little water that was obtained from a cistern on the corner of Twenty-second and Shotwell Streets, that was fortunately at their command, this fire was confined to the building in which it originated. Otherwise, all the Mission section of the City would have been destroyed.

The result was that this fire was checked there and would not have extended farther west, but for a fire that broke out in the neighborhood of Gough and Hayes Streets at about ten o'clock that morning, had there been but the slightest quantity of water obtainable when this latter fire was discovered, it could have easily been extinguished, but we were compelled to watch it burn and spread. This is the fire that caused the destruction of the Mission district as well as the Hayes Valley section, including the Mechanics' Pavilion and the City Hall.

In the wholesale district north of Market Street, many fires broke out. Though it was not impossible to check, the department was unable to stop them on account of the lack of water.

The conflagration lasted for three full days, and at the end thereof, the members of this department, who had been continuously on duty, without sleep and barley sufficient food, were well-nigh exhausted.

In conclusion we will state that the fire department of our municipality is today in as good condition in regard to discipline, efficiency, etc., as it was on April 17, 1906, and with the acquiring of additional apparatus, tools, etc., to replace those destroyed, and the establishment of a large commodious repair shop, for the repair and manufacture of our apparatus, together with the erection of substantial buildings to replace the temporary structures hastily erected to house the burned out companies after the fire, we have no hesitancy in declaring that the San Francisco Fire Department will again assume its place in the foremost rank of the fire departments of the world in regard to its efficiency and completeness of its equipment and appliances for battling with fire.



 
Top