Remembering the 1906 San Francisco great earthquake
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SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — The fire hydrant on the corner of 20th and Church streets in San Francisco was painted gold and flowers were laid over it on Sunday, a reminder of the day 115 years ago that a 7.8-to-8.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the city causing widespread death and destruction.
A small crowd gathered at Lotta’s Fountain, a tradition in the city since 1915. They included Mayor London Breed and former Mayor Willie Brown. However, the survivors have all passed on — the last was William A. “Bill” Del Monte, who died in January 2016 days before his 110 birthday.
In the era of COVID-19, the crowd was socially distanced and wore masks — a symbols of the latest deadly challenge San Francisco has faced.
The quake struck at 5:12 a.m. and moments after the temblor a fire began that swept over the city and took several days to finally extinguish. It’s magnitude has been estimated to be between 7.8 to 8.0 since earthquake measurements were not in use at the time of the quake.
More than 3,000 people died, over 80% of the city was destroyed and thousands were homeless in the wake of the quake and fire. It struck with a force equal to 6 million tons of TNT, about 12,000 times the impact of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
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