On April 18, 1906 at 5:12am in San Francisco, one of the greatest earthquakes to occur in history happened. This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 and could be felt in southern Oregon and central Nevada. This event had cascading results, fires started around the city and buildings started collapsing. Due to the large magnitude of the event, the United States Army recorded about 700 deaths. There were around 28,000 buildings destroyed from the earthquake and fire. In the end the fire had consumed 4.7 square miles. This earthquake caused a lot of damage because it was a city of 410,000 people and they were not prepared for an event this large. There was a lot of impacts throughout the city. For instance, City Hall was hit significantly, it was reduced to rebel shortly after the earthquake, this was because of the soft ground underneath the City Hall. Another reason for the collapse of City Hall was the poor materials used, such as newspapers and trash had been incorporated in the building process(Niderost 2006). Another area of San Francisco that was hit hard was the South of Market area. This area was a busy area with business, houses and restaurants. However poor design was also clear in this area. A four-story hotel named the Valencia only had one story above ground remaining because the other three stories had sunk into the soil. The building eventually collapsed. 30 people died in the collapse of the hotel. Because of the earthquake, there had been over 60 fire blazes throughout the city. When firemen went to attach firehoses to hydrants, they found that there was little water available, this was as result of over 300 water main breaks throughout the city. Firefighters could not put out the fire.
Agencies/Organizations involved:
Since City Hall collapsed, government officials had to set up a command post in another area. This area was set up at the Hall of Justice, The Mayor Eugene Schmitz headed over to the command post from his home and began the recovery process. He was in a tight spot because he had been accused of taking bribes. He believed that if he handled this disaster correctly he could have a chance at political salvation. He believed this event was “a heaven-sent opportunity” (Niderost 2006). In one case, he saw looting by the Hall of Justice, where the command post had been set up and he decided to act. To stop the looting, he issued a proclamation stating that anyone who loots or is engaged in any other crimes, troops can kill them. These troops guarded buildings, helped reduce chaos, restored order and prevent looting. These troops also evacuated people from their houses and businesses.
In San Francisco, there was several military bases. They were under control of Brigadier General Funston at the time of the disaster. A hero of the disaster was Navy Lieutenant Freeman. He orders tugboats to pump seawater from the bay to fight fires along the waterway. For the firetrucks, he had water pumped directly from the tugs to the firetrucks, giving the trucks the ability to fire fires that were not along the waterway. This action helped reduce the effect of the fire on the city and was very effective.
Ruef was also another person that was important in the disaster of San Francisco. He was a Republican Party organizer and he saw opportunities by switching over to the Union Labor Party. The Labor Party controlled the board of supervisors since they were elected in 1905. Ruef called the supervisors from the Labor Party “the paint eaters, because they were so greedy that they would eat the paint off a house” (Niderost 2006). This party wanted to take advantage of this disaster. They were some of reasons behind Mayor Schmitz problems, because the Labor Party had the local newspapers to start printing on Schmitz corruption.
Lessons Learned:
Since the 1906 Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco was so major, there were many lessons to be cleared.
The first thing to be recognized as a Lesson learned was to recognize that the San Andreas Fault could have more effects down the road. Before 1906 small sections of the fault had been mapped and described. The 1906 disaster illustrated the magnitude of the fault and a commission in California took it upon themselves to map the rest of the fault. This updating mapping also helped connect the commission to an earthquake in 1857 in lower California, which was from the San Andreas Fault. Once the mapping had been complete, the commission found that it was over 600 miles stretching throughout California. This mapping also helped other communities along the fault line to prepare for an earthquake when you least expect it.
The second lesson learned was to improve building construction and style. Many buildings were destroyed by liquefaction because of the earthquake. As I mentioned before many of the buildings in this city were built with materials such as garbage and trash. These were poor construction practices. Doing closer examination, there were multiple poor construction methods. Such as collapse due to the lack of ties between walls and frames. Another example would be insufficient bracing or poor mortar. This lead to improved construction practices as well as the importance of checking buildings for earthquake mitigation materials.
The third lesson learned was establishing the movement on the fault as strike slip. “Commonly the offset of structures as well as non-structural can reach from 8 to 15ft during the horizontal slip during an earthquake.” (Zoback 2006). The earthquake was due to the longtime elastic strain of the plates and then a sudden release (Zoback 2006). This was an explanation for the earthquake and also led to new mitigation strategies.
The forth lesson learned was that the further you get from the earthquakes epicenter; less violent the shaking is. Geographic data can provide significant data to help prepare communities for future events like this.
The final lesson learned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire was that after research and previous occurrences around this area. This was found that it was still an active fault and should be monitored frequently. Even though earthquakes happen so quickly, just one minute of warning, could save the lives of many.
In Conclusion
The 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco was a dynamic disaster, from killing hundreds to destroying thousands of buildings. Out of the ash rose heroes as well as lessons. Each disaster that happens can be devastating but we can also learn and prepare for the next event. San Francisco will be better prepared for the next earthquake.