The Great San Francisco Fire of 1906

Natural disasters are always life-changing events. Some are more remembered than others. One such event was the great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. As if the earthquake itself wasn't enough, hundreds died in the great fire that erupted and burned for four days and cost an estimated $500 million in early 20th century dollars.

On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:25 am, there was a small quake that was felt throughout all of the Bay area. About 25 seconds later, an estimated 8.3 earthquake struck the city, with devastating affect. Buildings crumbled, street tore open like gaping mouths and cries filled the air.

City Hall after the quake

Once the shaking stopped, the real terror began: the fires. It spread from building to building without mercy; poorly constructed wooden fixtures collapsed. People were trapped inside with no means of escape. The streets literally liquefied and collapsed. There was nowhere to run.

Market Street

The fire department was ill-equipped to fight the blaze. A few firemen fought the blaze with knapsacks, brooms and a fraction of water from an operating hydrant at 20th and Church.

The fire spread over the next four days. On 395 Hayes Street, the "Ham and Egg" fie would break out, destroying part of the Western Addition, the Mechanics' Pavilion and City Hall. It then jumped to Market Street where the Winchester Hotel caught fire and collapsed.

The Hearst Building at Third and Market streets became emblazoned and collapsed. At first the wounded were sent to the Mechanics' Pavillion, but when the fire approached they were evacuated. The same happened at St. Mary's Hospital. Shortly thereafter, the entire Financial District caught fire and began to burn.

Postal Telegraph operators transmitted their last message to the outside world as army troops ordered them from the building at 534 Market St., opposite Second St., at 2:20 p.m. because of the approaching fire.

Mayor Schmitz was confident that downtown could be saved, but fire broke out at the Delmonica Restaurant in the Alcazar Theatre Building. It turned to downtown and Nob Hill.

As the fire department began to dynamite buildings to stop the blaze, all they did was keep it spreading. In the end, they never put out the fire. It simply burned itself out. The estimated damage was $500 million dollars and the death toll was estimated at 1000. Three-quarters of San Francisco had burned to the ground.

The King of Bombs

Today, I want to share with you the story of Tsar Bomba, the King of all bombs.

Tsar Bomba, also known as Big Ivan, was the largest nuclear weapon ever constructed or detonated. Built by the Russians in 1961, it was designed to have the firepower of 100 million tons of TNT. But, in order to reduce the nuclear fallout in their own territory, the firepower was reduced to 57 million tons of TNT. To put that in perspective, the power of this bomb was five times greater than all the TNT used in World War II (including both atomic bombs dropped over Japan!) Luckily, the bomb got 97% of its energy from from fusion reactions. Had it not, it would have increased the world's total fission fallout since the invention of the atomic bomb by 25%!

The detonation of this bomb was incredible. The cloud mushroomed up and continued to grow and grow. The fireball from the blast, though detonated in the sky, nearly touched the ground.

According to the Nuclear Weapon Archive:

Despite the very substantial burst height of 4,000 m (13,000 ft) the vast fireball reached down to the Earth, and swelled upward to nearly the height of the release plane. The blast pressure below the burst point was 300 PSI, six times the peak pressure experienced at Hiroshima. The flash of light was so bright that it was visible at a distance of 1,000 kilometers, despite cloudy skies. One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 km. One cameraman recalled:

The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. Slowly and silently it crept upwards.... Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural.
Another observer, farther away, described what he witnessed as:
... a powerful white flash over the horizon and after a long period of time he heard a remote, indistinct and heavy blow, as if the earth has been killed!

A shock wave in air was observed at Dickson settlement at 700 km; windowpanes were partially broken to distances of 900 km. All buildings in Severny (both wooden and brick), at a distance of 55 km, were completely destroyed. In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. The atmospheric disturbance generated by the explosion orbited the earth three times. A gigantic mushroom cloud rose as high as 64 kilometers (210,000 ft).

Despite being exploded in the atmosphere, it generated substantial seismic signals. According to a bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey it had seismic magnitude mb = 5.0 to 5.25.

People 120 miles from the blast site reported third degree burns. The temperature at the epicenter of the blast reached 1 million degrees Celsius. The Russians had succeeded in creating a sun on the earth!

Here's a video of the explosion:

While all of this is a scary piece of history, as writers it is important for us to know, remember and share.

The Fire That History Forgot

Hey All,

An eyewitness account:

By now the air was literally on fire, scattering its agony throughout the town. Men, women, and children, clad in nightgowns and caps, shrieked with horror when they saw their loved ones burned alive. The entire town was a blazing inferno; there was only one escape; the river! Thousands of people… pressed on with terror in their eyes, going further into the river, where they remained the next day and night. Families were separated; little babies tried desperately to secure footing in the mucky river…yet the river wasn’t even safe, for swooping sparks and bits of fire dropped out of the sky burning entire bodies with an instant sweep!

What was described above was a terrifying event that American history has simply forgotten; an event that left 1,200 people dead in less than 10 minutes. The date was October 8, 1871. The place was the tiny logging town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and it was one of the most severe, under-reported fires not just in American history, but in human history as well. October 8^th was a Sunday, and on that hot, dry (less than two inches of rain that summer) evening, a fire of unknown origins raged though as a giant fireball, engulfing the town, the countryside and everything else in its path.

The population of the town that morning was roughly 2000, and they had been beaten down by relentless drought and heat. In addition to the townsfolk, the population swelled even more, thanks to the abundance of volunteers in town to help fight the small wildfires that were already popping up across the area. There were so many small fires that the smoke hung in the air like a heavy drapery, making it difficult to breathe. At 8:30 pm, there was a dull roar that raised the alarm in the town. Strong winds had whipped the surrounding wildfires into a blazing inferno that was barreling towards Peshtigo. Firefighters quickly threw in the towel, when their buckets of water failed to stop the blaze. The people began to head towards the Peshtigo River.

Suddenly, a surge of flames, roasting at over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, blasted into the town. The combination of heat and wind created superheated tornadoes with terrifyingly strong speeds. Sand, debris and burning chards and embers began to rain down on the town, almost as if fire were dropping from Heaven itself. People ran for their lives. Some jumped into wells, only to find the water there boiling; some dropped dead as they breathed, the air being so hot it burned their lungs; the bridge over the river collapsed with hundreds of people on it; some rushed into the river itself, seeking protection, only to be crushed by falling debris or drowned by the multitudes of people crowding in.

DamnInteresting.com notes that the local paper, The Peshtigo Eagle, said of the blaze:

The frenzy of despair seized on all hearts, strong men bowed like reeds before the fiery blast, women and children, like frightened spectres flitting through the awful gloom, were swept like Autumn leaves. Crowds rushed for the bridge, but the bridge, like all else, was receiving its baptism of fire. Hundreds crowded into the river, cattle plunged in with them, and being huddled together in rise general confusion of the moment, many who, had taken to the water to avoid the flames were drowned. A great many were on the blazing bridge when it fell. The debris from the burning town was hurled over and on the heads of those who were in the water, killing many and maiming others so that they gave up in despair and sank to a watery grave.

After 90 minutes, the burning hell’s winds changed direction, the fire blew back on itself and it burned out. The next day, it began to rain.

More than 1,200 people died that day, the entire down (save for one building) was destroyed, and more than 1.25 millions of acres of forest and prairie were charred to nothing.

Despite it all, the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin still exists.

Thanks for reading.

Next time…