San Fran earthquake, fire: Story of courage

Among other things / By Paul Fugleberg

Just finished reading "San Francisco Is Burning" — the Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires by Dennis Smith.

It's a fascinating read, much more than a straight disaster piece.

This goes into depth about the people and culture of turn-of-the-century San Francisco; the politics and associated corruption which resulted in hundreds of dry fire hydrants and cisterns that allowed the fire to burn block after block of business and residential areas; of errors in judgment and inexperience of civic leaders in coping with disasters; poor judgment calls and sometimes arrogant actions of military personnel called up to fight the fires; the choice and misuse of types of dynamite to destroy buildings in hopes of making fire breaks — some explosions even spread the flames and started new fires.

It's also the stories of incredible bravery of the firefighters, civilian volunteers, honest political figures and business leaders; the vital but unrecognized roles played by junior officers of the U.S. Navy that saved much of the waterfront docks and piers; individual dramas of folks caught up in the chaos that followed the quake, the geologic and geographic background that makes the area prone to potentially catastrophic earthquakes.

Had the Richter scale been in existence at the time, the temblor would have measured 8.3.

Yet, the earthquake itself was only a part of the story, causing only an estimated two percent of the damage — the fires destroyed 522 square city blocks. More than 3,000 persons died, an estimated 200,000 of the 460,000 residents in 1906 were left homeless.

Remember, those were the days of horsedrawn steam engines and hose carts, no radio or TV communications, very limited telephone service, no aerial tankers, etc.

The author winds up telling of some of the key people involved and what became of them and their family members. Some of the accounts are inspiring, others not so nice.

Dennis Smith is also the author of "Report from Ground Zero," which covers the events of 9-11 disaster.