THE RUINS AND SMOKE AFTER THE

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE,

MAY 1906
THIS EARTHQUAQE WAS ONE OF THE
BIGGEST EARTHQUAKES RECORDED IN
HISTORY TILL THIS DATE

The 1906 San

Francisco earthquake
and subsequent fires
killed an estimated
3,000 people and left
over half of the city's
population homeless.
Around 500 city
blocks with 28,000
buildings were
destroyed during this
devastating natural
catastrophe.

Genthe, a pictorialist photographer who operated a portrait studio on Sutton

Street, captured the panic and confusion that pervaded the city and presaged

2
the vast damage yet to come: by the end of the third day, more than four
square miles of San Francisco had been leveled. Adding to the trauma of
earthquake and fire were the controlled explosions of dynamite meant to
eliminate structurally compromised buildings.

Th
e ruins after the San Francisco fire and earthquaqe

At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a foreshock hit San Francisco. However, it
offered just a quick warning, for massive devastation was soon to follow.

Approximately 20 to 25 seconds after the foreshock, the

large earthquake hit. With the epicenter near San Francisco, the entire city
was rocked. Chimneys fell, walls caved in, and gas lines broke.

Asphalt that covered the streets buckled and piled up as the ground seemed
to move in waves like an ocean. In many places, the ground literally split
open. The widest crack was an incredible 28 feet wide.

The quake ruptured a total of 290 miles of the Earth's surface along the San
Andreas Fault, from northwest of San Juan Bautista to the triple junction at
Cape Mendocino. Though most of the damage was focused in San

3
Francisco (in large part because of the fires), the quake was felt all the way
from Oregon to Los Angeles.

People standing on the streets during the fire

Almost immediately after the earthquake, fires broke out across the city
from broken gas lines and stoves that had fallen over during the shaking.

The fires spread ferociously across San Francisco. Unfortunately, most of

the water mains had also broken during the quake and the fire chief was an
early victim of falling debris. Without water and without leadership, it
seemed nearly impossible to put out the raging fires. Thesmaller fires
eventually combined into larger ones. 

REFERENCE:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267631

https://www.thoughtco.com/1906-san-francisco-earthquake-and-fire-
1778280#step-heading?
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