Immediate vicinity of San Francisco, but up and down the coast for about two miles. It also severed most of the gas pipes in the city. It knocked over every candle and every morning fire. It displaced all the fluids so the heat had no place to go but in the ceiling. So it created in the first few minutes after the fire, at 52 recorded fires in the city of San Francisco. And the San Francisco firefighters did an extraordinary job in containing these 52 fires in the very beginning of the day. Now San Francisco, in this great stroferey experienced two pieces of very bad luck. The first piece was that general agreely, in charge of the Pacific Division of the army had gone to chicago to a wedding of his daughter, so consequently because he was out of the city the next military person in charge was general funstine. General funstine was a brigadier and a man who had created for himself a very noteable reputation in the philippine war. He had won the metal of honor. A very distinguished milit
So this coming april, next april marks the 100 Year Anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake, which was an event that until up to fairly recently, was arguably the worst Natural Disaster in American History. However, what is often overlooked by those unfamiliar with the history of the 1906 earthquake is that the quake itself, measuring somewhere around 8, i believe on the Richter Scale, actually played a lesser role than some may think in the ensuing catastrophe. As dennis will surely explain, fire was the culprit of much of the devastation that came afterwards. And in the wake of recent events, it seems particularly timely to look to the 1906 quake for lessons in dealing with those catastrophes. And their aftermath, particularly the social and psychological consequences. So just to tell you a bit about dennis before we start, he is a former new york city firefighter. Now one of the leading historians on the subject of firefighting, and hes also the editor of fire house magazine. In