Index to Fire Department Reports

Municipal Reports

THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE
AND FIRE OF APRIL 1906

3. Rehabilitation of the Fire Department

Temporary headquarters were immediately established and the work of rehabilitation of the department commenced at once. It was found that twenty-six buildings of the department had been destroyed in the conflagration, and of these twenty-one were company quarters, housing twenty-nine different companies in all. Temporary quarters in the unburned portion of the city were at once procured for these companies and inside of twenty-four hours all the burned companies of the department were provided with quarters for the men and apparatus, and they were again in readiness to respond to alarms of fire.

The loss sustained by the department in apparatus was as follows: three steam fire engines, one hook-and ladder truck, one monitor battery, four automobiles, two hose wagons and two buggies.
The department did not suffer greater loss of equipment because all companies had responded to the many fires. The engines were not in the houses which were destroyed.

About 41,000 feet of hose of different sizes was also destroyed.

The total value of the property of the department, other than buildings, that was destroyed amounted to about $190,000, including destroyed fire hydrants; while the loss in buildings amounted to $380,000; which together with the buildings damaged by the earthquake and not fire, amounted to $13,000. making a total loss sustained by the department of $583,000.

Application was made to the Board of Supervisors to provide temporary structures for the burned out companies on their former sites, and within one year from the date of the fire; houses were provided for eleven engine companies, four truck companies, six chemical companies, and quarters for six battalion chiefs.

In conclusion we will state that the fire department of our municipality is to-day (June 29, 1907) in as good condition in regard to discipline efficiency, etc., as it was on April 17, 1906... 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 the completeness of its equipments and appliances for battling with fire.

4. What the Department Lost