Today there is no one left alive who experienced the great San Francisco quake in in 1906. That is why it is important to tell the story. Many recall the terrible quake there in 1989, which caused a rupture in the earth of 25 miles and measured about 7.0 on the Richter scale. The 1906 quake had a rupture of 290 miles and was estimated at 7.8 and, by some, up to 8.3 on the Richter scale. It released 16 times the amount of energy as the 1989 quake (at a minimum). It boggles the mind to imagine what it was like near the epicenter. This is the story of what it was liketold by the survivors, rescuers and eyewitnesses to the immense power, and terror, that was unleashed on that day.

"At 5:12 A.M. on the morning of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by one of the worst earthquakes ever recorded, a disaster that instantly killed hundreds and leveled large sections of the city. The quake has become a watershed event in American history, yet with the passage of time its drama has overshadowed the even greater calamity to which it gave rise: the fires that broke out as the result of toppling chimneys, broken flues, and severed gas lines. These blazes burned for days and were ultimately responsible for the deaths of as many as three thousand people, the destruction of more than five hundred blocks and twenty-eight thousand buildings, and the dislocation of some two hundred thousand residents." "In San Francisco Is Burning, Dennis Smith recounts the three terrible days of the tragedy with an almost cinematic immediacy, tracing the drama through the experiences of a number of people who lived it: a valiant naval officer who helped save the city's piers and wharves, the corrupt mayor, a firefighter who witnessed firsthand the staggering intensity of the fires, a woman who ran a shelter in Chinatown, and the army general who took command of the city and inadvertently placed the city and its people at even greater risk." "Above all, San Francisco Is Burning is a compelling and timely account of how a city copes with catastrophe - how it prepares for such contingencies and how effectively it deals with them when they occur. Smith reveals how San Francisco's corrupt municipal government had paid little heed to the warnings of its fire chief about the inadequacies of the public water system, a failing that would leave the city particularly vulnerable to spreading blazes. Once the fires began, a number of decisions made by the emergency leadership not only proved ineffective hut actually exacerbated the situation. Dynamiting to create firebreaks became, in the hands of amateurs, a dangerous incendiary, while the enforced evacuation of many of the city's neighborhoods deprived them of a volunteer fire brigade, desperate to save their own homes. But the most drastic measure - the declaration of martial law and posting of militia with shoot-to-kill orders against looters - turned out to be the most damaging of all as it led to senseless deaths and the demoralizing of an already overwhelmed populace."--BOOK JACKET.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.