ARNOLD_GENTHE COLONEL_MORRIS DEPUTY_FIRE_CHIEF_SIRAGUSA DOCTOR EARTHQUAKE_VICTIM FEMALE_VICTIM FIREMAN FIRE_VICTIM GENTHE GEORGE_KAHN JAMES_DALESSANDRO JAMES_HOPPER JOHN_T_WILLIAMS LOOTER LUCY_FISHER MAN MAN_ON_HORSEBACK MARK_ZOBACK MARK_ZOBAK MAYOR_SCHMITZ NARRATION NARRATOR PATRICK_BUSCOVICH PHILIP_FRADKIN POLICE_OFFICER PRAYING_WOMAN SCHMITZ SOLDIER STEHR WATCHMAN WILLIAM_STEHR NARRATOR California: the promised land for generations of American settlers, driven by a restless urge to 'go west' and seek their fortune. But deep beneath this dramatic landscape lies a force far greater than the power of the American Dream. NARRATOR ...San Francisco. NARRATOR Today, in its high-rise avenues and elegant boulevards, seven million people live with the knowledge of what can happen when the San Andreas stirs. This is a city haunted by its past. The city's crystalline skyscrapers drill upwards into the sky, glittering in the early morning sun. NARRATOR One hundred years ago, in the cold dawn of April the 18th, 1906, the San Andreas Fault triggered an earthquake of apocalyptic power. NARRATOR In seventy-two hours, San Francisco was raised to the ground. The gold-rush boomtown of the American west lay in ruins: up to 6,000 of its citizens dead. NARRATOR It was an event so traumatic that hundreds of survivors wrote personal accounts of what they went through. GENTHE To San Francisco NARRATOR ...who lived through the quake that day. WILLIAM STEHR I knew that the house was gong down like the others. It cam in to may head to jump out of the window and onto the roof below. Then the house in front of me collapsed with a deafening roar. NARRATOR This is a story of chaos, terror and disaster. But it is also a story of the consequences of that disaster; of the lies and corruption that dominated the rush to rebuild the city. And why the people of San Francisco, may yet pay a terrible price, for the arrogance and greed of their ancestors. NARRATOR San Francisco has always been a symbol of progressive, modern America. But one day this city will be destroyed, just as it was a century ago. It is built on the ashes of an older San Francisco: a city that until the earthquake of April 18th 1906, was as proud and prosperous as it is today. JAMES DALESSANDRO San Franciscans and people in the bay area have to realise the magnitude of what happened here. They have to realise that although we live in paradise we also live on top of the San Andreas fault. And seven other active earthquake faults and if terrorism is an if, earthquakes are a when. NARRATOR The ghosts of the past still haunt this city whispering a warning from history of the geological time-bomb that lies deep beneath these streets. MARK ZOBACK A repeat of the 1906 earthquake is essentially inevitable, it really is a question of when it will happen not whether it will happen. It may not be decades, it may not be fifty or a hundred years until it happens but it will happen. NARRATOR San Francisco is a city like no other, it's future has been determined by it's past. NARRATOR By 1906 San Francisco had come of age. In just fifty years it had grown into the financial capital of the American west; home to the newly-rich landowners of California. And one night in April the great and the good gathered to hear the most famous singer of the age: Enrico Caruso. The self-styled 'Paris of the West' was eager to prove itself a city of culture as well as wealth. NARRATOR Among the audience that night was an ambitious young reporter, called James Hopper. Born in Paris, Hopper's taste for adventure had already taken him to the far corners of the earth. NARRATOR He'd come to San Francisco to find fame and fortune as a writer. He was looking for a story to make his name. But he could never have guessed just what the following dawn would bring. JAMES HOPPER Evening Mr. Spreckels, Mr. Phelan... Mrs. Phelan. JAMES DALESSANDRO When you read James Hopper's writing you see that he was a man who loved every aspect of the city. Who loved its the low-brow and the high-brow people, who loved its architecture, who loved it's character , who loved its people. Who believes that this is a truly extraordinary place. NARRATOR It was the gold rush of 1849 which had transformed this two-bit shanty town, almost overnight, into a city of half a million prospectors, gamblers and adventurers. In five decades it's banks had handled over a billion dollars: in profits from gold and land. Hard on the heels of prospectors, immigrants arrived. Chinese, Irish, Italians: workers of every creed and colour come to chase their fortune. Miles from the nearest civilisation, the city was growing into a symbol of modern America. But there was a darker side to this Californian dream. Its wealth proved a magnet for corruption and greed. And no one was more powerful, than the Mayor of the city, Eugene Schmitz. NARRATOR Schmitz was 41 years old and presided over San Francisco like an empire. In his third term as mayor, he was popular with the voters. But he'd also made powerful enemies; businessmen who claimed his million dollar fortune was built on backhanders and bribes. NARRATOR And San Francisco was about to pay a heavy price for the Mayor's corruption. 8 miles away, deep underground, along the San Andreas fault forces were stirring that would threaten his city and all who lived there. NARRATOR A few blocks and a world away, from the fashionable restaurant where the Mayor was dining, William Stehr was working another night shift in a small Viennese bakery. WILLIAM STEHR Can you make sure you've got the addresses right for the deliveries because we can't have anything going astray. All right boys well I'll see you all tomorrow. Nicky give us a hand here. NARRATOR Stehr had worked his way to California, drawn like thousands of immigrants, by the chance of carving out a new life in America. NARRATOR But by dawn the next day, Stehr's new world would lie in ruins. He'd have nothing left but the will to survive. NARRATOR The city was now just eight hours from disaster. In the Opera House, as the legendary Caruso sang before the cream of San Francisco society, the young journalist, James Hopper, began to compose his review. JAMES HOPPER The opera was a great success. This is San Francisco's finest hour. Our city has arrived. NARRATOR But Hopper's review would never be published. And as the city retired to bed that night, no one could have guessed how quickly San Francisco's fortunes were about to change. NARRATOR The San Andreas Fault, slicing through more than seven hundred miles of California - ancient and deadly; laid like a curse across the land and all who live upon it. Deep underground, two massive tectonic plates have been grinding against one another for fifteen million years. NARRATOR Two of the twelve enormous slabs of rock, fifty miles thick, which together form the earth's crust. The Pacific plate stretches from California to Japan and constantly crashes against the American plate making the San Andreas one of the most dangerous seismic zones on earth. NARRATOR People on the west coast of America live on treacherous earth, which could rip apart at any moment. NARRATOR And one hundred years after the 1906 quake, scientists are still no closer to being able to predict the next catastrophe. But in a daring experiment at Parkfield, in Northern California, seismologists are drilling two miles down into the very centre of the San Andreas Fault. MARK ZOBAK This is the first time anyone has drilled into an actively deforming fault that's continually producing earthquakes. We're also going to be leaving behind monitoring instrumentation - right in the heart of the fault. NARRATOR At Parkfield they hope to gain the first glimpses into an unknown world: the inner workings of an active fault zone. Here the Pacific plate relentlessly bulldozes its way northwards at two inches a year, heading towards Alaska. At great depth the superheated rock flows like honey. But in the upper ten miles of the earth's crust the plates lock together and massive pressures accumulate which can trigger earthquakes. MARK ZOBAK With our observatory directly within the San Andreas fault we hope to answer the really critical question of whether earth quakes are predictable. NARRATOR The experiment at Parkfield is the seismological equivalent of the moonshot: a step into the unknown. But one thing scientists are sure of is that another massive earthquake is inevitable. Mistakes made a century ago motivated by greed and low politics have sown the seeds of a second disaster. The earthquake of 1906 provides a warning from history for San Francisco today. NARRATOR In the early hours of April the 18th 1906, the nurse, Lucy Fisher, lay sleeping in her room at a women's boarding house. In three hours time she was due back on duty in the city's central hospital. But at twelve minutes past five that morning, her life, like that of William Stehr, James Hopper and all the citizens of San Francisco changed forever. NARRATOR Eight miles from the city, the Pacific and North American Plates suddenly slipped. NARRATOR After his night at the opera, reporter James Hopper was back in his apartment. JAMES HOPPER I awoke to the city's destruction. Right away it was incredible - the violence of the quake. JAMES HOPPER What the hell is happening? JAMES HOPPER It started with a directness, a savage determination that left no doubt of its purpose. I thought that this was the end. NARRATOR For forty eight long seconds the city of San Francisco shook. NARRATOR The young baker, William Stehr, was renting a room in one of the city's cheap boarding houses. WILLIAM STEHR It came into my head to jump out of the window and onto the roof below. WILLIAM STEHR Damn it! Open will you! WiLLIAM STEHR Then the house in front of me collapsed with a deafening roar. It spilled down in a cloud of dust from which I could plainly hear the agonising screams of the inmates. NARRATOR Nurse Lucy Fisher's brick and timber lodging house began to pitch violently. LUCY FISHER I felt that such a cataclysm meant nothing less than death and I was shaken to my core, flung side to side by the most vicious twists. LUCY FISHER There's nothing to fear, there's nothing to fear. WILLIAM STEHR Come on! LUCY FISHER Check all the rooms make sure everybody's out of here. Come on. There's no time for panic. Lucy helps her friend down the stairs. JAMES HOPPER Jesus... LUCY FISHER Follow me. Come on, follow me, the whole building could fall! Over there! Come, this way! Come quickly! NARRATOR A seismic wave travelling, at over ten thousand miles an hour tore through the city; releasing energy equivalent to more than a thousand nuclear blasts. NARRATOR It was the one of the first great disasters to occur in this, the new age of mass photography. Image after image captured the scale of the disaster that morning. The pressure that had been building in the San Andreas for more than two centuries had ripped San Francisco apart in less than a minute. It was the largest earthquake ever to hit an American city, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale. PHILIP FRADKIN You'd see this wave coming down Washington Street and the buildings and the pavement moving up and down- and then suddenly there would be silence, and the silence is what everyone comments on afterwards, because everything has been squeaking and moving and crashing and banging and suddenly there's this long period of silence. NARRATOR As the sun rose that morning, the people of San Francisco emerged into the ruins of their city. Among them, was the reporter, James Hopper. JAMES HOPPER The area was almost deserted, the crushed houses empty. All around me was a great silence. The roar of rumbling buildings was over and only a brick was falling here and there like a trickle of spent rain. God it was an awful thing. Out in the streets the people were dishevelled and silent, absolutely silent, as if they had suddenly become speechless idiots. Not a cry, not a sound, not a sob, not even a whisper. NARRATOR Whole sectors of the city had collapsed in the blast; including the infirmary where Lucy Fisher worked. As the first of the injured poured in from the streets, she joined other staff at an emergency field hospital. POLICE OFFICER Hey lady stay back! LUCY FISHER Excuse me. Let us through. Let us through! POLICE OFFICER I said stay back! Only the wounded are allowed in here. LUCY FISHER We're nurses. We're here to help. Let us through now! NARRATOR For Lucy Fisher, like many in the city that morning, the scale of the disaster was inconceivable. She knew nothing of earthquakes and couldn't imagine a force that could bring such destruction. LUCY FISHER I felt that more evil was to follow the calamity we had just experienced. I believed that this cataclysm had extended over the entire globe and had brought terror to millions of people. NARRATOR Thinking these were perhaps her last days on earth, Lucy was determined to record all she witnessed. LUCY FISHER Patients were being brought in constantly. It was difficult to know how best to help the poor suffering victims. I feared that in the confusion some of the many critical cases might be overlooked. It was as if I was living in a bad dream. NARRATOR The earthquake's epicentre was eight miles west of the city, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. Its lethal seismic waves struck San Francisco in under two seconds. The area known as South of Market, was the city's Ground Zero. NARRATOR 90,000 people, a fifth of the city's population, lived in this run down district. In one cheap hotel alone, the Nevada Rooming House, fifty people were missing. One of them was the young baker, William Stehr. WILLIAM STEHR When I came to I had no idea where I was. I was completely buried, the whole place must have fallen in on top of me and I was gasping for breath. But it wasn't just me. I could hear the screams of other victims, the cries of people dying in the ruins. Those cries especially those of the women, were horrific. WILLIAM STEHR Help me! somebody Help me! WILLIAM STEHR Even as I faced death I couldn't get those screams out of my mind: they were the most dreadful part of the experience. WILLIAM STEHR Don't let me die down here. There's got to be someone... WILLIAM STEHR Lying there in the darkness, breathing in the musty air, I tried to feel myself all over, working my limbs as best I could to find out if any bones were broken. WILLIAM STEHR I could move my fingers and toes, my legs and arms seemed all right too but the debris weighing down on my body was too heavy to lift. I was trapped. NARRATOR The district South of Market was over-crowded and poorly built. But it suffered the worst of the earthquake damage, above all, because it stood on an area reclaimed from the sea. PATRICK BUSCOVICH portions of south of market that not only liquefied, where the ground turned to soup but it actually had something called lateral spread. The ground actually moved horizontally it had actually moved 12 feet from where it originally was. NARRATOR In 1906 three square miles of San Francisco stood on land reclaimed from the bay. MARK ZOBACK What happens during an earthquake is when the waves travel through made land or soft mud, the velocity is so slow that the seismic waves sort of pile up and amplify near the surface and the shaking winds up being much more severe so one can relate directly the severity of shaking to the type of ground conditions from place to place. NARRATOR In his house high above the bay, the Mayor of the city, Eugene Schmitz had slept though the quake undisturbed. JOHN T WILLIAMS Mayor Schmitz! Mayor Schmitz! NARRATOR The homes of the mayor and many of his wealthy neighbours had barely been damaged. MAYOR SCHMITZ Alright, alright, I'm coming. JOHN T WILLIAMS We've been hit by a huge quake. MAYOR SCHMITZ What! JOHN T WILLIAMS It's chaos downtown. I'm telling you, it's bad MAYOR SCHMITZ Give me a minute. Keep the engine running. We're going straight to City Hall. NARRATOR the shockwave had ripped through the city, levelling street after street. But the pattern of damage, at first seemed inexplicable. South of Market nearly every building had been destroyed. yet some of the most prosperous districts like Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill and Pacific Heights remained untouched. But it wasn't just the strength of the buildings that saved them. The answer lay in the ground: all these areas shared a common geology. PATRICK BUSCOVICH The lowest ground acceleration is on bedrock - that's the safest place to be, so there are portions of San Francisco which are on bedrock and if you want to pick your best location, that's where you want to be. NARRATOR Mayor Schmitz's house stood in Pacific Heights on solid bedrock. At quarter past six in the morning, an hour after the earthquake struck, he left the safety of home and was driven downtown. For the first time, he saw for himself the true scale of the disaster. JOHN T WILLIAMS The rubble's slowing us down. MAYOR SCHMITZ Then try taking us down Market street, that might be quicker. NARRATOR In their hour of need, the people of San Francisco looked to Eugene Schmitz for salvation. But the mayor was an unlikely hero. Could a politician widely rumoured to have bribed and embezzled his way into office, really be the man to lead San Francisco out of danger? NARRATOR April the 18th 1906 was a day a generation of San Franciscans would never forget: the day an earthquake swept a fifth of the city from the map and left thousands dead and injured. Cut off from the outside world, it seemed to many that Judgement Day had arrived. PRAYING WOMAN The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lay down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. Yay though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil. Surely goodness and mercy shall come to me all the days in my life, and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever. NARRATOR Panicked citizens grabbed their most precious belongings and abandoned what was left of their homes. Most were only able to save what little they could carry. There were no horses left to pull the carts. Most animals had fled the city in terror. NARRATOR As people left, rumours began to sweep the streets that thieves were looting the bodies of the dead: slicing fingers from corpses to steal wedding rings. Scare stories spread that cities across America had been wiped out: New York had collapsed, Chicago was flooded, a massive tidal wave had overwhelmed Seattle. No one knew if these tales were hearsay or if America was truly in the midst of a twentieth century apocalypse. NARRATOR The city was in chaos. Someone needed to take control. And the only man with the authority to do so was the Mayor, Eugene Schmitz, now being driven to his headquarters in the city. JAMES DALESSANDRO By the time he arrived at City Hall, he had to realise that San Francisco was in grave danger. MAYOR SCHMITZ Are the Halls of Justice still standing? JOHN T WILLIAMS Yes, sir. MAYOR SCHMITZ Hurry then, we'll make our new headquarters there. JAMES DALESSANDRO And then as he drove toward the Hall of Justice he could see the plumes of smoke that had begun to billow up from south of Market Street. By the time he arrived there and found out that thee were already reports of looting and people begging for help and that the telephone system was down and that the fire box system was out and that the water supply to the city was broken, he had to realise very early on the morning of April 18th 1906 that he was facing a disaster of unprecedented, unimaginable proportions. NARRATOR As Schmitz made his way through the ruins of his city he saw in the disaster an opportunity. The night before the earthquake, the mayor had learnt of an attempt to charge him with corruption. If the charge was proven could be jailed for 20 years or more. Schmitz realised the earthquake offered the perfect chance to redeem himself, if he could make the disaster his own and be seen as the saviour of his stricken city. NARRATOR San Francisco was isolated. Three hundred miles away, Los Angeles was little more than a small western outpost. The nearest major cities were Chicago and New York, 2,000 miles across the country. It was left to ordinary citizens like nurse Lucy Fisher, to give what help they could. LUCY FISHER The hospital was like a different world from the one we had known and loved. It was as if the old familiar earth upon which we had depended and trusted had cruelly forsaken us, like a friend's disloyalty after years of loving intimacy. LUCY FISHER What happened to him? DOCTOR Crushed by a wall. They dragged him out. LUCY FISHER Where can I find some morphia? DOCTOR I don't know if there is any. NARRATOR Supplies were running short. Amputations were being conducted without anaesthetic. And still the injured kept flooding in. NARRATOR Hotels and furniture stores had been raided for hospital beds. Telegraph lines were down, the power was out, roads and rail lines had buckled and broken. And below ground, under the wreckage, there was another city, of the trapped and wounded. Among the thousands buried beneath the rubble, was the young baker William Stehr. WILLIAM STEHR I'm trapped down here! WILLIAM STEHR I had no idea how long I had been down there. Outside buildings were still falling and I feared I might be crushed. If I didn't get out soon this would be my grave. WILLIAM STEHR Can anyone hear me? Please help me! WILLIAM STEHR My mind was reeling I thought I was never going to escape, then suddenly I heard somebody running over the debris above me. At last there was hope. If only they could hear me I might be saved. WILLIAM STEHR Wait, wait I'm down here.I'm trapped here. Don't go, don't leave me down here. MAN I can't see you. WILLIAM STEHR Wait I'm down here! Wait - I'm here! Don't go. WILLIAM STEHR But no attention was paid to my cries. Slowly his voice became more distant. I was lost and alone, facing what I thought would be my death. NARRATOR As William Stehr battled for his life, the task facing Mayor Schmitz was daunting. He had turned the basements of the Halls of Justice into his crisis command centre. Now he was ready for the performance that would make or break him: to play the saviour of San Francisco. JOHN T WILLIAMS It's worse than we thought sir. The Central Hospital has collapsed. The morgue has been destroyed. And the walls of the jail are about to give way. MAYOR SCHMITZ So clear the jail now, keep the felons under armed guard and release the minor offenders. Hunt up Sheriff O'Neil and have him swear in two hundred deputies. Detail those men to gather in every automobile and wagon possible. Let it be known that I still run this city, and the effort to save it begins here at this table. Oh and have O'Neil close up every saloon at once. JAMES DALESSANDRO How the earthquake affected Eugene Schmitz will be the subject of endless debate. I think he saw the 1906 earthquake and disaster as an opportunity to rehabilitate his image. He knew that if he performed admirably that perhaps the corruption charges would go away. And perhaps it was a chance to become a hero in the eyes of San Francisco. NARRATOR But the mayor’s task was about to become harder than he could possibly have imagined. NARRATOR At 8.14 that morning, three hours after the quake hit, San Francisco was rocked by a massive aftershock. MARK ZOBACK Aftershocks represent the clean up of left behind, stored energy. So what happens is the fault slips and it redistributes stress in the surrounding region and areas that were already highly stressed then slip in aftershocks. JAMES HOPPER You've got to get out of here. It's not safe. NARRATOR For the journalist, James Hopper, the aftershock felt like a malevolent force, hunting out survivors, striking the city at its most vulnerable. JAMES HOPPER We had been hit again just as the scale of the disaster was becoming clear. It was as if there was something personal about the attack: it seemed to have a certain vicious intent leaving yet more victims crushed or struck by falling masonry. JAMES HOPPER Hey there's somebody up there! NARRATOR Until now Hopper had wondered the ruined streets slowly recording what he saw. Now the aftershock prompted him into action. JAMES HOPPER I can't hear you! OK I'm coming, hold on. JAMES HOPPER I came to a piece of a room in which was a bed covered with debris and out of the debris a slim white hand and wrist were sticking like an appeal. JAMES HOPPER OK, Can you move? EARTHQUAKE VICTIM I don't know, it hurts. JAMES HOPPER I threw off the stone and bricks worried she was near death, but the little, pale slender thing still breathed and I carried her down to what was left of the sidewalk. STEHR Nice and easy, nice and easy. That's it NARRATOR The aftershock of 8.14 that morning was just the first. In all, twenty six more would follow; each one slowing the already over-stretched rescue effort. NARRATOR And now a new hazard was threatening the lives of all those who had survived the earthquake: fire. JAMES DALESSANDRO There were really two stages to the disaster. The earthquake was in itself enormous but San Franciscans seem to have survived that fairly intact, there was not a wholesale panic but fire is another element all together and when the fires began to spread that's when the real terror and a sense of panic started to grip a lot of San Franciscans. NARRATOR In the rapid and often corrupt construction of San Francisco, gas and electricity pipelines had been laid side by side meaning a single spark could start an inferno. And worse, the city itself was one vast tinderbox. San Francisco is a city built to burn because of the type of buildings that we primarily have which is wood frame constructed buildings built very close together. The potential for a firestorm exists always. NARRATION In the tightly packed streets, 90% of the buildings were made of wood. The fires were advancing with terrifying speed, engulfing whole sections of the city spared by the earthquake. NARRATION Photographer Arnold Genthe had woken that morning, in his suburban house, unaware of the horrors unfolding across the city. But when he saw the vast plumes of smoke filling the sky, he ran to his camera dealers. Genthe knew he had to capture this event on film. ARNOLD GENTHE George, I need to borrow a camera. Do you have a Kodak? GEORGE KAHN What about this 3A? ARNOLD GENTHE Yes, that'll work. And film, I'm going to need lots of it. GEORGE KAHN Take whatever you want, the whole place is going to burn up anyway. ARNOLD GENTHE Thanks George... and good luck. NARRATOR Arnold Genthe had arrived from Germany 11 years earlier. He was a well known figure in San Francisco making a good living as a portrait photographer. But Genthe's pictures of the next three days would eclipse everything he'd done to date. They would turn him into one of the most celebrated photographers of his age. From the ruins above Sacramento Street he took this picture: the people of San Francisco watching their city burn. ARNOLD GENTHE On the right is a house, the front of which had collapsed in the street. The occupants are sitting on chairs calmly watching the approach of the fire. Groups of people are standing in the street, motionless, gazing at the clouds of smoke. NARRATOR South of Market, the nightmare continued. Already, the streets lying on this land reclaimed from the bay had been enveloped in quicksand. Now, survivors realised an inferno was racing through all that remained. Here many, like the baker William Stehr, were still trapped within the rubble. NARRATOR With no one above ground to help him, Stehr somehow had to find the strength to free himself. STEHR I'm trapped down here, help. WILLIAM STEHR I thought things could get no worse when I smelt smoke and heard the crackle of flames. Then I began to hear agonising screams for help. I knew I had to get out or I would be burnt alive. WILLIAM STEHR I started to struggle desperately, using what little energy I had left. I reached out with my arms, my fingers edged forward, the rough brick, the splintered wood scraping my skin until it bled, my limbs ached but I would not give up. I dragged myself onwards inch by precious inch. Stehr panicking, struggles through collapsed building over rubble on hands and knees. My fingers all of a sudden found an opening, I pulled myself toward the light. I had to turn on my back and crawl upward through a gap bristling with nails and splinters that tore my sides and my clothes. I will never forget that one amazing moment when suddenly I could see the world outside through the ruins of the building. And then I got my first breath of fresh air. I gulped it in. The air was so, so sweet. NARRATOR For the first time, William Stehr saw the twisted, scorching ruin which had once been his home. But his ordeal was not over. His skull was fractured and still he had to escape from the burning city. MAYOR SCHMITZ What's the latest news? JOHN T WILLIAMS We've only got reports from engines ten and sixteen - they can't control the fire. It's spreading rapidly. MAYOR SCHMITZ Have you found out where the Fire Chief is yet? JOHN T WILLIAMS Yes. MAYOR SCHMITZ Order him here. JOHN T WILLIAMS That's not possible. MAYOR SCHMITZ What do you mean? JOHN T WILLIAMS He's in hospital, close to death. MAYOR SCHMITZ How am I to fight a fire without a fire chief? Bring me his deputy! JOHN T WILLIAMS Sir, Adams NARRATOR Ironically, the one man Schmitz needed most had, that morning, been due to appear above them in Halls of Justice. In an angry effort to force Schmitz to impose a stricter fire code his Fire Chief Denis Sullivan had demanded a federal hearing. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA I would say that Chief Sullivan was a visionary. A very bright man who knew the potential and was a fire fighters fire fighter and clearly understood the political side of being a fire chief in a city like San Francisco. Mayor Schmitz, consults his colleagues. He paces with frustration. NARRATOR For years Sullivan had tried to warn Schmitz San Francisco was vulnerable to fire: in the gold rush era, the city had burnt to the ground six times. Sullivan told the mayor that unless he invested in new reservoirs, fire boats and a back up salt water system, a fire capable of destroying the city was inevitable. JAMES DALESSANDRO Eugene Schmitz rejected Dennis Sullivan's fire repression plan because it was expensive and the money was better suited for the pockets of Eugene Schmitz. NARRATOR Now, the mayor's decision to overrule his fire chief came back to torment him. Sullivan's prophecy was fast becoming fact. There seemed no way to stop the inferno spreading. NARRATOR By 11 am, just 6 hours after the earthquake struck, the flames had turned into an inferno which swept through more than sixty city blocks. NARRATOR Arnold Genthe's memoirs record his despair at witnessing the firestorm. ARNOLD GENTHE Staring out at the city I began to realise the extent of the disaster that had befallen us. The fire surged through the streets. All along the skyline as far as the eye could see, clouds of smoke were billowing up and flames were devouring everything. NARRATOR The thickest smoke clouds were rising from the ruins South of Market Street. In the midst of the chaos there, the baker William Stehr was still trying to make his escape. WILLIAM STEHR When the fire caught someone the sound was horrific: a long agonized scream which only ceased when they died in its furious flames. I heard a shout for help. There was someone still alive. NARRATOR The fire was now advancing through rubble where hundreds of people still lay trapped. WILLIAM STEHR I could barely walk but I could not pass by and let him burn. I had to try and help, but I was so weak I could do little. FIRE VICTIM Pull me out! WILLIAM STEHR And then the flames burst through. There was no chance we could save him. The victim, realizing that he would soon be burned to death, pleads with the bystanders. FIRE VICTIM No don't leave me NARRATOR There are over a dozen first hand accounts of people begging for a mercy killing. NARRATOR Anything but the horror of being burnt alive. FIRE VICTIM Please shoot me! Just shoot me! I don't want to burn! NARRATOR Burn victims were now pouring into the emergency hospital, stretching the resources of, Lucy Fisher, and her colleagues to the limit. LUCY FISHER Do you need anything? FEMALE VICTIM My children have gone. LUCY FISHER Gone? FEMALE VICTIM I have lost them all. My little ones. LUCY FISHER You will find them again. FEMALE VICTIM My clothes caught fire then I was pulled away and I haven't seen my husband since. NARRATOR And outside, the flames were growing closer to the hospital by the minute. LUCY FISHER I need to talk to the surgeon. I'll be back in a minute. Sir, we have to get everybody out of here... there's a fire coming NARRATION At eleven thirty that morning, Lucy Fisher was forced to evacuate the emergency hospital. NARRATION San Francisco was burning out of control. The mayor had no fire chief to co-ordinate the fight against the inferno and now there was more bad news for Mayor Schmitz. JOHN T WILLIAMS we're unable to find any water, Sir. MAYOR SCHMITZ Are you telling me there is no water? JOHN T WILLIAMS Not at this moment MAYOR SCHMITZ Tell them to keep looking, check the old cisterns. Surely there must be some water, we're surrounded by it. And bring me updates from every single engine we have running. JOHN T WILLIAMS We can't locate some of the engines, Sir. MAYOR SCHMITZ Well try harder Mr Williams: we've got to find them. NARRATOR The earthquake had ruptured the city's water mains. The Mayor's corrupt past - his lack of investment in the city, his rejection of advice from those around him - was catching up with Schmitz. And now, with no water or any plan of how to fight the fire, San Francisco was paying the price for the Mayor's mistakes. NARRATOR San Francisco was reeling from the aftermath of the most powerful earthquake ever to hit an American city. An inferno was raging through its ruins, but the city had run out of water to fight it. NARRATOR Now, a mass exodus was underway. Reporter, James Hopper, watched them pass. JAMES HOPPER The dazed population are fleeing the city. They march heavy stepped. There is no jostling, no running, no trampling and somehow their calmness is worse than the hysteria of panic. It tells of a greater tragedy, of more complete hopelessness. The faces are stone, the eyes dead, there is no revolt. And constantly chasing them is the great tidal wave of fire. NARRATOR Just a block away, Hopper's words were being brought to life in the photographs of Arnold Genthe. Fate had handed both men the assignment of their lives. Before them, a quarter of a million people were abandoning the city. ARNOLD GENTHE By noon, the whole town was in flight. Thousands were moving toward the ferry hoping to get across the bay to Oakland. On all streets leading to Golden Gate Park, there was a steady stream of men, women and children. No one who witnessed these scenes can ever forget the rumbling noise of the trunks drawn along the sidewalks. NARRATOR Six hours earlier, the young baker, William Stehr, had lain trapped in the ruins of his boarding house. Now he joined the crowds trying to make their way to safety. NARRATOR But in the crush of beams and masonry, Stehr had fractured his skull. As the pain of the injury overcame him, he collapsed. The crowds moved on leaving him for dead by the roadside. trying to reach the safety of Golden Gate Park, three miles away on the edge of the city. NARRATOR Behind them, the downtown burned and the chaos escalated. When word spread that insurers would cover fire but not earthquake damage, homes that had survived so far were set alight. LOOTER There's more over here boys. The rule of law was breaking down. Looters were raiding the saloons and drunken gangs began ransacking the city. JAMES DALESSANDRO In a sense San Francisco reverted to a wild west town. You had chaos in the streets, lack of order. Chaos as history teaches us brings out both the best and worst in people, and you have humanity stripped to it's barest to a survival mode. NARRATOR Mayor Schmitz was losing control of San Francisco. He had to find a way to stamp his authority on the city. NARRATOR At three o'clock he called together the fifty most important men in San Francisco; his friends and enemies alike. MAYOR SCHMITZ Good day to you gentlemen, these are the gravest of circumstances. Some of what I have to say to you today you may find unpalatable, some you may not agree with, but I can assure you that today, as we are assembled here, only the most drastic action will save our city........ NARRATOR The man whose support Schmitz would find hardest to gain was a powerful, old adversary: Colonel Charles Morris. MAYOR SCHMITZ There is news of widespread looting, the theft of property and the violation of the rights of property owners throughout this city. There is but one way to combat the menace of lawlessness spreading through our streets and it is this: MAYOR SCHMITZ The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to KILL any and all persons engaged in looting or in the commission of any other crime. COLONEL MORRIS Excuse me, Sir. Are you prepared to accept full responsibility for this decision? MAYOR SCHMITZ Yes. It is my duty to the city. The only way to stop looting is to shoot those caught in the act. Let it be given out, that three men have already been shot down without mercy. We have no time, I repeat no time to waste on thieves. Now, maps of the city will be distributed to you shortly... NARRATOR According to the American Constitution only the President has the power to declare Martial Law. But Schmitz ignored this detail. He was now the self-appointed sheriff of San Francisco. NARRATOR An old printing press had survived the quake and now Schmitz put it into service. Five thousand fly-sheets, announcing the mayor's shoot-to-kill order, were posted around the city. JAMES DALESSANDRO Many people believe that Eugene Schmitz became this suddenly decisive leader, but most of his decisions were wrong: The military shot as many as five hundred people. JAMES DALESSANDRO There were innocent people killed who may have been taking their own goods from there own houses, and it was a disastrous order in my opinion. JAMES DALESSANDRO The military shot as many as five hundred people. There were innocent people killed who may have been taking their own goods from their own houses. It was a disastrous order in my opinion. NARRATOR Schmitz now turned to the army, not just to restore order, but to fight the inferno. SCHMITZ Alright come on, bedtime is over. Alright let's move it along over there. Hustle. Hustle. NARRATOR Six thousand troops gathered in camps, preparing to tackle the fire with a radical new tactic. Dynamite. NARRATOR The army believed that blasting whole city blocks would create open areas too wide for the flames to cross. But this meant destroying millions of dollars of real estate owned by Schmitz's wealthy supporters. Once again the Mayor came face to face with Colonel Morris. COLONEL MORRIS Alright men! In your own time! COLONEL MORRIS By destroying the buildings we'll rob the fire of its fuel. That way we can rein it in and tame it MAYOR SCHMITZ At what cost though colonel? COLONEL MORRIS Mr Mayor, there is no other way. Is the next charge ready? And now! MAYOR SCHMITZ But these dynamite crews of yours have caused more fires than they've put out so far. COLONEL MORRIS If these charges are set right there won't be a problem. MAYOR SCHMITZ I'll believe that when I see it. NARRATOR But the mayor's hands were tied. Without water, his only option was to allow the use of dynamite to blast firebreaks. And as he watched the buildings fall - many of them the property of his business cronies - Schmitz began to panic. JAMES DALESSANDRO Eugene Schmitz was reluctant to authorise large scale dynamiting for several reasons. He was not completely convinced it was legal and the city would be sued. And he also didn't want to dynamite all these businesses many of which belonged to his friends. Essentially Eugene Schmitz had to face the decision whether to blow his city to pieces or let it burn. NARRATOR The mayor's efforts to delay the dynamiting were overruled. Stung by this failure he launched a bitter attack on the army, accusing the dynamite teams of working at random and with too little experience. And he was right. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA The concept is great - if you remove fuel from a fire's path you will stop the fire. But by using dynamite and by putting dynamite in inexperienced hands or in cases where you are not having a coordinated effort. You might cause more problems. NARRATOR Suddenly Schmitz appeared the voice of reason: shortages had forced the army to use the wrong type of explosive. Instead of sticks of dynamite they were detonating highly unreliable, black powder charges. JAMES DALESSANDRO Granulated dynamite is one of the most flammable substances known to man and in many many cases every time they dynamited a wood frame building those buildings caught on fire and the flaming debris would rain down for blocks and start other fires. They kept dynamiting and every time they dynamited a building it started another fire. NARRATOR The explosions were now so frequent many likened them to the sound of an artillery barrage. And every blast took with it another piece of the city's history. The self-styled Paris of the West was being torn apart. James Hopper wrote of his shock as this man-made destruction unfolded. JAMES HOPPER I watched on in horror as our city was blown apart. Blast followed blast as if war had been declared on San Francisco. NARRATOR Across the city, the photographer Arnold Genthe was still documenting the human cost of the catastrophe. The inferno sweeping through the city had reached temperatures of almost 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. NARRATOR Harrowing scene after harrowing scene was recorded by Genthe’s camera . Lost in his work, he was disturbed by a passing neighbour. MAN Hey! Hey! MAN Arnold! You idiot! What are you doing here? ARNOLD GENTHE What do you mean I'm taking pictures. MAN You shouldn't be here! ARNOLD GENTHE Why? MAN But haven't you heard? They're going to dynamite your house. ARNOLD GENTHE Dynamite my house... MAN Hell yeah. ARNOLD GENTHE My God, my negatives. NARRATOR When Genthe arrived at his home on Sutter Street, he was to get a taste of the rough justice being meted out across the city. SOLDIER Stay where you are! You can't come in here. SOLDIER You can't come in here! ARNOLD GENTHE But this is my home. I live here. SOLDIER Not for much longer. It's about to be dynamited. ARNOLD GENTHE On whose authority? SOLDIER My orders are to clear all houses in the block. If you don't do as I say, I will shoot. ARNOLD GENTHE I did not want to argue with him, but I did want to get inside, with the hope that I might save a few of my things. I had to be careful though as there were rumours that some of the militia drunk with power, had been shooting people. ARNOLD GENTHE How about a little drink? ARNOLD GENTHE A little wine, maybe some whiskey. You must be tired. And just a shot or two it can't do any harm can it? SOLDIER I suppose not. All right. But don't try anything. ARNOLD GENTHE In my cellar I had been keeping a precious bottle - Johannisberger Schloss 1868 - reserving it for a special occasion worthy of it. The special occasion had arrived. ARNOLD GENTHE Some whiskey. Some wine ARNOLD GENTHE I knew that to my unwelcome guest it would mean nothing, so for him I brought out a bottle of whiskey. ARNOLD GENTHE Here you are, help yourself. ARNOLD GENTHE A toast. To San Francisco. NARRATOR But twelve hours after the earthquake little of San Francisco was left. Fires burned out of control. And a city of almost half a million people was rapidly becoming a ghost town. Refugees set up camp in the surrounding countryside. Here Lucy Fisher tended the sick and wounded. Hundreds of people like Arnold Genthe lost their homes in the dynamite blasts. NARRATOR As his city was destroyed, Mayor Eugene Schmitz had been forced to abandon his headquarters. And if the fires couldn't be stopped soon, they would burn all the way to the Pacific. Schmitz had to do something and do it fast. NARRATOR After just twelve short hours, San Francisco, the pride of the American West, stood on the brink of destruction. Following the earthquake, an inferno was sweeping through the city. A quarter of a million people were on the move, seeking shelter in more than thirty relief camps. NARRATOR In Golden Gate Park, Mayor Eugene Schmitz, who twenty four hours earlier was the most powerful man on the west coast, sat alone in a field, forced to run his once great city from a tent. Water supplies had dried up - every possible source consumed in the battle to fight the fire. NARRATOR And without water, dynamite was the only way to contain the inferno. Now the army, led by Colonel Morris wanted to blast a four-mile long firebreak: a massive barrier to the flames, right across San Francisco. MAYOR SCHMITZ I will not authorise a firebreak of that magnitude. COLONEL MORRIS Sir, the fire is simply too strong and too fast. MAYOR SCHMITZ I do not intend to destroy San Francisco in the name of saving it! COLONEL MORRIS Either we build a firebreak at Van Ness or the city burns. MAYOR SCHMITZ I have told you my decision. Only buildings in the immediate path of the fire are to be razed. COLONEL MORRIS But Van Ness is the only place wide enough to stop the fire. MAYOR SCHMITZ No...sir! NARRATOR But Colonel Morris was right, Van Ness Avenue was the ideal place for a firebreak: the street was 125 feet wide. But by six p.m less than half of the city to the east of Van Ness was ablaze. To Schmitz, giving into Colonel Morris's demand, meant he would personally be responsible for abandoning two hundred city blocks to the fire. And these were not just any neighbourhoods. He would have to tell his wealthy supporters he was going to let their houses burn. First in the firing line was Nob Hill. Here for most of the day the rich had been pick-nicking, watching the flames engulf the city below, convinced that high on the hill, they were safe. NARRATOR But at eight p.m. the wind changed direction. The fires surged past the dynamite crews and started to burn their way uphill. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA Because of the hills in San Francisco. Fires that start at the base of a hill will burn quicker because of how it will heat up the homes next to it that are above it, the heating effect would be like putting a pot on the stove, the fire below it is going to heat whatever's above it and so the potential for that to burn increases significantly, nearly twice as fast as on a hill side as in the flat lands. NARRATOR The city's elite was forced to join the exodus from San Francisco. There was now no distinction between rich and poor. Street by street, million dollar mansions were consumed by fire. NARRATOR As the homes of the landowners of California burned, Mayor Schmitz weighed his options. He was on the brink of agreeing to the huge firebreak the army demanded; when one last opportunity came his way. JOHN T WILLIAMS They've found water! MAYOR SCHMITZ Where? JOHN T WILLIAMS One of the old cisterns up on Nob Hill. MAYOR SCHMITZ Yes! Let's get up there. NARRATOR Straight away the cistern on Nob Hill, meant they had 40,000 gallons of water to fight the flames. Mayor Schmitz joined the fireline at the Hopkins Art Institute. NARRATOR At last the Mayor’s luck seemed to be changing. With water, Schmitz could fight the fire on his owns terms. He could prevent the army blasting whole districts of the city to create a massive firebreak. That night, some of San Francisco's most priceless paintings were saved from the fire. But a much greater prize was at stake. The mayor believed this could be the turning point in his battle against the flames. NARRATOR But the change in Schmitz's luck was short-lived. By 2 am the water began to run dry. The battle for Nob Hill was lost. NARRATOR The villas and mansions that stood as a symbol of California's gold rush dreams, were gone everyone was a refugee now. NARRATOR Over a quarter of a million homeless people, rich and poor alike, had made their way to the relief camps now established on the edge of the city. The reporter, James Hopper would later write of misery on a scale America had never before witnessed. JAMES HOPPER I walked through the camps where thousands of the homeless have gathered to find shelter with their blankets and scant provisions. Everywhere I look there is suffering: the wounded, the injured, the dispossessed. No one knows how many have died. And the belief is firm that San Francisco will be totally destroyed. NARRATOR The people of San Francisco, desperate for food and water, were trying to come to terms with the end of their American dream. WATCHMAN More wounded coming in! NARRATOR The emergency hospital had now been re-located to Golden Gate Park. Lucy Fisher, who'd now been working without rest for 24 hours was witnessing life as she knew it, disappear. LUCY FISHER We were living in a different world. Things had lost their value, objects and possessions were meaningless. Old things had passed away, and all things had become new and terrible. Those nights in the park are as permanently impressed on my memory as if etched by a needle on my brain. NARRATOR Hours earlier, William Stehr had collapsed unconscious by the roadside trying to join the exodus from the city. When he came to, he found himself in a makeshift hospital bed. WILLIAM STEHR I could barely move and lay there for hours, just one of thousands who had lost everything, friends, families, homes. And all the while in the distance I could hear the flames devouring the city where I'd come to find a new life. NARRATOR The sounds and smell of the burning city were all around the camps: a constant reminder of the destruction that continued unabated. The fire had robbed people like Arnold Genthe of everything. ARNOLD GENTHE That night I slept in Golden Gate Park along with thousands of others who were in the same plight. Refugees in a disaster in which they had lost their homes and all their material possessions. NARRATOR The photographer had had to leave his life's work when he was thrown out of his home. He would later write of his lasting regret that he didn’t do more to rescue his valuables. ARNOLD GENTHE If I had shown any sense, rather than drinking I might have saved some of the things I valued most - family papers, and of course some of the thousands of negatives I had made during my career which were now but chunks of molten, iridescent glass. NARRATOR In his temporary headquarters across the camp, Mayor Schmitz had run out of options. His obsession with safeguarding the homes of the wealthy had allowed the inferno to spread unchecked. He could do nothing for his citizens. He was locked in a battle with the army. And now the mansions of his wealthy backers were in ruins. Throughout the night Schmitz wrestled with his conscience. If anything was to be saved, he must act now. NARRATOR Early on Thursday morning, the mayor summoned Colonel Morris to his headquarters. COLONEL MORRIS We have no other choice. MAYOR SCHMITZ Van Ness it is then. COLONEL MORRIS You understand, all buildings on the east side will have to be destroyed. MAYOR SCHMITZ Very well, the avenue must be sacrificed else the whole city will burn. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA The decision to go ahead and use dynamite to create a firebreak on Van Ness was brave, a brave decision that showed the authority of the time. Was it a proper decision? At the time it was. NARRATOR The dynamite crews gathered their supplies from all across the city and converged on Van Ness Avenue. The Battle of Van Ness had begun. Building by building, they began to blow the street apart. The firebreak was to be 125 feet wide and four miles long. It was one last chance to save the city. For the first time, since the disaster began, Mayor Schmitz and Colonel Morris worked together, burying their differences to defeat their common enemy: fire. The army ran a mile long fire hose from a tug in Golden Gate bay, pumping saltwater all the way to Van Ness. But over such a distance the water pressure was low. Only by concentrating all their resources on one last fight against the inferno did San Francisco stand a chance. JAMES DALESSANDRO Van Ness avenue was San Francisco's widest boulevard, the east side of it was already destroyed from fire and dynamiting but the boulevard was so wide that the fire hadn't lept to the west side yet. If it did there was a chance it would burn all the way to Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, the Sunset, the Richmond, Golden Gate Park approximately seven miles all the way to the Pacific Ocean. That was the only section of the city that had remained unburned up until now. If that went there would literally be nothing left of the city of San Francisco. NARRATOR Eugene Schmitz watched and waited. If the firebreak failed, he would soon be standing in the ashes of a city he had helped to destroy. NARRATOR By Friday April 20th three quarters of San Francisco had burnt to the ground. The fight was on to save what remained. The battle lines were drawn at Van Ness Avenue, the city's broadest street. If the fire crossed Van Ness, nothing would stop it. NARRATOR Firemen, volunteers and the dynamite gangs worked together in the ferocious heat. Everything was risked on this last ditch stand against the inferno. The battle line ran twenty blocks along the length of Van Ness. Many of the crews had worked without rest for forty eight hours. But there were no reinforcements left to call. NARRATOR Casualties from the battle at Van Ness were rushed to the emergency hospital established in a relief camp outside the city. As the nurse Lucy Fisher tended to the wounded, she could hear the distant explosions. FIREMAN I've got to get back to Van Ness and help. LUCY FISHER The boom from the dynamite sounded all through the night and day and filled my heart with pity, for I thought of the brave soldiers and firemen working so heroically without sleep or rest in that terrible furnace while trying to save our city from complete destruction. The sky was crimson and the fire was approaching so quickly that even our camp, though so many miles from the city, was in danger from the flames NARRATOR The long battle raged throughout Thursday night and Friday morning. MAYOR SCHMITZ Come on men, do your best! The fire must not cross! NARRATOR Time and again the flames threatened to cross the firebreak at Van Ness: the sparks blown by the wind and dynamite. Volunteers had to pull scorching wood from roofs with their bare hands. Everyone knew that if they failed, all that remained of the city would be gone. JAMES DALESSANDRO People took rags and towels and curtains to beat out flames on their wood shingle houses. And you had one of the most heroic fire fights in an area in excess of four miles. Along San Francisco's water front and up Van Ness Avenue probably to California Street. It was a massive fireline. NARRATOR The fire at Van Ness raged for twelve hours. But each time it threatened to cross the fire break, it was repelled. And slowly the tide began to turn. To the east of Van Ness the flames continued to rage through block after block. But to the west the firebreak held. The last surviving districts of San Francisco seemed, at last, to be safe. NARRATOR The announcement came in the early hours of the morning. At five am, Mayor Schmitz took centre stage and seized his chance to become the hero of the hour. MAYOR SCHMITZ Gentlemen, gentlemen. At this hour I can announce a proud victory. We have held the fire at Van Ness. The worst is over. NARRATOR The inferno was beaten at Van Ness Avenue. The fires that burned to the east of the Van Ness were gradually contained and subdued. But what was once one of the finest of San Francisco's grand boulevards was now a blasted, burnt out shell. In three days the disaster destroyed an area six times larger than the Great Fire of London. NARRATOR 28,000 buildings lay in ruins. Three quarters of the city had simply been wiped out leaving nothing but a skeletal wreck of charred bricks and twisted metal. In all, it’s thought that up to six thousand people died. NARRATOR Within 24 hours of the victory at Van Ness, the last of the fires were put out. At 7am on Saturday, April the 21st, the fire was officially declared at an end. MAN ON HORSEBACK The fires are out! The fires are out! NARRATOR But even as he celebrated with the crowds, the journalist James Hopper knew they would soon come face to face with destruction on an almost unimaginable scale. JAMES HOPPER The disaster was one long three day progression; by the time one phase of it was grasped, it had swept on to another and when it was all over the entirety was so colossal as to be beyond the immediate realisation of human minds. The destruction of San Francisco will always remain a vague, chaotic and sombre nightmare. NARRATOR The damage was estimated at a billion dollars, the equivalent of over forty billion today. More than two hundred thousand people were left homeless. PHILIP FRADKIN Physically what was the city like, the city was like Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima: it was an absolute ruin with a few skeletal buildings and one or two forms wondering forlornly through city streets. The city was an absolute desolate ruin. NARRATOR When the people of San Francisco returned to the wreckage of their homes, there was a profound sense of shock. There are records of at least a dozen people committing suicide when they discovered all that they had was lost, and the people they loved were gone. NARRATOR It cost twenty million dollars to clear the streets of rubble before any rebuilding could begin. More than half the city had to live in the emergency camps, waiting for news of how and where they would be housed. The U.S. Army rushed 200,000 rations and all the tents it had to supply the camps. The federal government sent six million dollars in immediate aid to feed and clothe the victims. NARRATOR But even as the aid poured in, disease overwhelmed the crowded tent cities. There were repeated outbreaks of typhoid, meningitis and smallpox. Seventy thousand people could see no future here, and abandoned San Francisco for good. PHILIP FRADKIN The impact the earthquake and fire had on San Francisco was it destroyed it physically, morally legally, economically and socially. And there was a period of physical destruction and a period off psychological destruction. NARRATOR Mayor Eugene Schmitz took personal control of the reconstruction, which began almost as soon as the ashes cooled. NARRATOR Amazingly, on May the first, only 10 days after the fires were finally extinguished, cable cars began running once again on Market Street: the city's main drag. Two months later, on July the 1st, Eugene Schmitz ordered the army out of the city. NARRATOR In the eyes of all those around him, Eugene Schmitz was the man who had saved San Francisco. JAMES DALESSANDRO Eugene Schmitz benefited enormously. Eugene Schmitz became a hero. Most people including his critics said that he became this suddenly decisive figure. No one wants to criticize their leader during wars or catastrophes. There are bigger issues than politics or corruption and the biggest issue was re-building the city of San Francisco and trying to get it back on it's feet. PHILIP FRADKIN The earthquake and fire enhanced the mayor's reputation - because he gave the appearance of being very active. He was suddenly like Mayor Giuliani after the destruction of the World Trade centre sort of restored somewhat to its former glory. NARRATOR But the mayor's rush to rebuild his city was not driven by altruism. It was motivated by the fear that if businesses deserted San Francisco, it would lose its status as the financial capital of the American West forever. Big money was at stake. And Schmitz the hero, turned villain once more when he systematically began to conceal the scale and horror of the earthquake of 1906. JAMES DALESSANDRO I believe that the truth was covered up deliberately. I believe there was a conscious effort to deny the magnitude of the disaster. Earthquake of this was an alien and terrifying event of this magnitude. And they were afraid that people might abandon the city, that investors might not invest. That business interests might leave. That insurance companies might not offer hazard insurance. PATRICK BUSCOVICH Earthquakes were not a common event throughout major cities in the US, fires were, so the concept of an earthquake causing damage would have a negative impact on business development in the city. Whereas a fire which happened in most major cities, for example the Chicago fire, were something that businesses were used to. NARRATOR The Mayor and successive administrations orchestrated a massive spin campaign. NARRATOR Photographs were retouched to emphasise fire damage and downplay the destruction caused by the quake. NARRATOR City officials were instructed to refer to the 'Great Fire' rather than the 'Great Earthquake'. The San Andreas Fault was simply removed from the official geological state map of California. Local newspapers and businesses colluded in the deception. And it worked. Business flooded back to the city and Schmitz reinforced his status as the saviour of San Francisco. NARRATOR Even the official death toll was a lie. City Hall put the number of dead at 498. It's now thought the real figure could be more than ten times higher. And in the race to rebuild San Francisco, the mayor deliberately ignored vital lessons. JAMES DALESSANDRO Unfortunately in the rebuilding process we relaxed, ignored rather than enhanced building codes which was the wrong thing to do. And was more landfill and a lot of things that we should not have done that we did. NARRATOR South of Market, the area worst affected by the quake, was re-developed. And whole new areas were hastily reclaimed from the sea, sowing the seeds for future disaster. NARRATOR On the 17th October 1989, the city received a stark reminder of Mayor Eugene Schmitz's legacy. At 5.04 p.m. San Francisco was hit by the Loma Prieta earthquake. Eight billion dollars of damage was done in just twenty seconds. Huge sections of Interstate 880 collapsed. Twenty-two fires broke out. Areas of reclaimed land liquefied, just as they had done in 1906, enveloping the houses in soil that turned to quicksand. Across the state sixty-eight people died and almost four thousand were injured. It took more than five years to repair the worst of the damage. But the city had survived. For many, it was proof that a disaster on the scale of 1906 could never happen again. Such complacency is ill-founded. PATRICK BUSCOVICH We had a very small earthquake in 89 and our level of damage was a few buildings in the Marina, the Embarcadero freeway, a couple of building South of Market. Most of the city had no damage at all Whole sections of the city had no damage. In the next earthquake I don't think a section of the city won't be damaged. NARRATOR Loma Prieta rated 6.9 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake of 1906 was thirty two times more powerful. And where Loma Prieta's epicentre was seventy miles from San Francisco, in 1906 it was just eight. Loma Prieta was a warning, an omen of a far greater catastrophe. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA I believe the average citizen in San Francisco really isn't aware of the potential for how significant the next shaker could be. 1989 was a wake up call. It affected San Francisco but it wasn't centred here in San Francisco. It only lasted a short amount of time compared to what occurred in 1906. I don't know if any of us are really prepared for then potential of the next significant one. NARRATOR Scientists know that earthquakes come in cycles. And that deep beneath the streets of San Francisco the geological time-bomb is ticking. Somewhere along the San Andreas Fault the pressure is building which could produce a repeat of 1906. PATRICK BUSCOVICH When we do have a very large earthquake it will be somewhat of a wake up call. Regretfully it will be a little late. NARRATOR But there is some hope for San Francisco. At Parkfield, three hundred miles south of the city The twenty five million dollar drilling project, finally broke through the San Andreas Fault in August 2005. Now scientists have been able to place probes inside the fault, allowing them to measure the smallest of changes. Using the resulting data they aim, one day, to predict earthquakes before they strike. MARK ZOBAK Earthquake prediction takes many forms, and in it's simplest form it would be nice to be able to turn on the TV and here there's going to be a magnitude such and such in a certain place at a certain time a place. People would know what to do and the agencies responsible for responding to the potential disaster would know what to do. That would be a wonderful thing to achieve but we don't know that it's achievable. NARRATOR Today, seven million people live in the Bay Area, ten times as many potential victims as there were in 1906. San Francisco is running out of time, still unable to see into the future, still failing to learn from its past. JAMES DALESSANDRO I believe our complacency is the most dangerous factor. The fact that we live in a place this beautiful and this technologically advanced tends to lull us into the belief that this cannot happen again and will not happen again and that a disaster of this magnitude could not possibly repeat itself. I think that's the Titanic mentality and I think that is easily the most dangerous factor in the reoccurrence of this event. DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF SIRAGUSA I think it's sort of like reading a fantasy book. It happened before and it happened long and far away like a fairy tale. I don't think anyone knows how bad it's really going to be when it happens again. NARRATOR But the journals, diaries and photographs of those who lived through the earthquake of 1906 provide a warning from history to the people of San Francisco. NARRATOR Lucy Fisher devoted the rest of her life to working for the Red Cross. William Stehr abandoned San Francisco. He died in Los Angeles on the 21st anniversary of the earthquake. Arnold Genthe's photographs of the disaster made him famous. He moved to New York where his clients included Greta Garbo and President Theodore Roosevelt. James Hopper's career also thrived. He went on to write six novels and covered the First World War as a special correspondent. Mayor Eugene Schmitz was eventually tried for corruption, but popular support led to him being freed on appeal. He was later re-elected to public office. When he died, on November 20th 1928, he was buried with full civic honours. NARRATOR No one knows when the next great quake will come, but San Francisco is doomed to relive the horrific events of 1906, because the San Andreas never rests and this is a game of chance played with loaded dice. It may strike tomorrow or not for a hundred years. But it might just strike as the city sleeps tonight.