In fact, much of what has been previously written about the fires is incomplete or inaccurate. However, nearly no one knows the complete story about the heroic San Francisco firemen and countless other San Franciscans who were determined to save their city from the catastrophic inferno that threatened to destroy everything.ĭocumentary records of the event, dispersed in archives and only partially available throughout the past century, have unfortunately been frequently distorted by rumor and fiction. Fed by plenty of fuel and fanned by bad decisions, poor planning, corruption, and ineffective actions, the wide-spread fires nearly erased San Francisco from the map. Some people - but fewer - even know about the fires that spread for several days throughout the city in the aftermath of the earthquake. Told with verve and a seasoned firefighter's knowledge, San Francisco Is Burning is the gripping and definitive account of one of the greatest disasters of the twentieth century.San Francisco is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires by Dennis SmithĪlmost everyone knows a few things about the great earthquake that devastated San Francisco in April of 1906. Throughout, Smith reveals many unknown details about the event, from the city's great vulnerability to fire-due to its corrupt and hasty building practices-to the widespread racism the quake unleashed and the atrocities committed by national guardsmen. Smith cinematically recounts this terrible tragedy through the stories of the people who lived through those terrible days-from a valiant naval officer who helped save the city's piers and wharves to Eugene Schmitz, the crooked mayor, to the "debonair scoundrel" Abe Ruef, the most erudite city boss in American history. This watershed event in American history has never before been told with the richness of historical detail and insight that our foremost historian of fire, Dennis Smith, brings to it in San Francisco Is Burning.
In all, 522 blocks and 28,188 buildings were leveled, and some 200,000 people dislocated. The ensuing fires that ravaged the city for days were responsible for the deaths of as many as 3,000 more. on the morning of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was struck by one of the worst earthquakes in history, instantly killing hundreds.
0 kommentar(er)
