Municipal Reports
THE SAN FRANCISCO
EARTHQUAKE
AND FIRE OF APRIL 1906
General History (page 2 of 3)
The physical effects of the earthquake in and upon the city of San Francisco were: (1) The Displacement of the earth's surface in the region of "filled" or "made" ground over former water and swampy areas. (2) The demolition of a few buildings that were already verging on collapse, and the injury to other buildings by the fracturing of brick or stone walls, and by the movement of frame buildings upon their foundations. (3) The rupture of underground pipes in the neighborhood of the earth's displacement. This was the most serious in the case of the water pipes used to carry the city's water supply from the reservoirs twenty miles away.
One of those pipe lines was laid along the
"fault-line" heretofore mentioned, for a distance of six miles, and was
practically totally destroyed. Other pipe lines crossed marshy and filled ground
and were broken at such points. (4) The causing of numerous fires, due to
broken gas connections, crossing of electric wires, the breaking of chimneys,
overturning of stoves, the liberation of chemicals by breakage of containers
(principally in drug stores), and like effects. It is recorded that fifty-two of
these fires occurred, most of which were extinguished while incipient.
Several of the fires thus caused could not
be subdued in their early stages, and soon passed beyond means of control. Had
not the water supply been destroyed, it is probable that no serious loss by fire
would have resulted. As it was, the City's Fire Department was rendered
practically useless. Fire-boats and engines at the waterfront saved all the
wharves and structures thereon.
These fires, passing beyond control, destroyed all the property,
with a few isolated exceptions, in the districts shown on page three.
Page three of three