INTRODUCTION

In the early hours of April 18, 1906, an earthquake estimated at 8.3 on the Richter scale rocked the city of San Francisco for forty-five seconds. Although the damage from the quake itself was severe—especially near the waterfront, where the shifting of soft-packed soil caused buildings to sink into the ground—the true calamity was yet to come, as dozens of quake-related fires combined into a conflagration that nearly burned San Francisco to the ground.

Dennis Smith's San Francisco Is Burning is a multidimensional examination of the fires that engulfed the city and the desperate three-day battle to bring them under control. The natural disaster that set off the crisis was exacerbated by numerous human errors, from the ill-advised decision to fight the fire with dynamite and black powder to the mayor's illegal shoot-to-kill proclamation (a de facto declaration of martial law), which ultimately cost the lives of as many as 500 San Franciscans. But many heroes emerged as well, fighting the blaze block by block, night after night, and ultimately extinguishing it just hours after a bleak telegram was sent to Washington, D.C., stating, "ALMOST CERTAIN NOW THAT ENTIRE CITY WILL BE DESTROYED."

The book also takes readers into the political and social life of early twentieth-century San Francisco, introducing a cast of real-life characters from all strata of society. The influence-peddling of the corrupt mayor, Eugene Schmitz, directly contributed to the water shortage that hampered the fire department's efforts to fight the fire. Meanwhile, former mayor James Phelan and businessman Rudolph Spreckles—proponents of a rival water plan—built a legal case against the mayor and his political boss, Abe Reuf, which eventually led to Reuf's conviction on bribery charges. Though bitter enemies before and after the fire, these four men worked together to bring the crisis to a close as part of the mayor's Committee of Fifty.

Played against these high-level political machinations are the experiences of ordinary San Franciscans, especially the men of the San Francisco Fire Department. Jack Murray and Engine Company Number 1 were awakened by the earthquake just hours after battling a three-alarm fire, and went the next seventy-two hours virtually without sleep or food. Working largely without sufficient water supplies or coordinated communications, Murray and fellow firefighters in other companies fought a seemingly hopeless battle against both the original fires and the subsequent blazes set off by the poorly implemented dynamiting ordered by the mayor.

Joining the locals was a contingent of naval officers under the command of Lieutenant Frederick Freeman, whose determination to offer assistance to the firefighters—even against orders—proved crucial to containing the blaze. By contrast, General Frederick Funston's decision to bring Army troops into San Francisco resulted in great loss of life and property, as some looters were summarily executed and citizens who might have contributed to the firefight were evacuated at gunpoint.

San Francisco Is Burning serves as both an engaging recreation of a historical event and a call to action for today. Smith suggests that as much as San Francisco was ill-prepared for the disaster that befell it, recent political appointments of men and women with no emergency background to decision-making positions in vital offices of emergency management leave many cities and states with inadequate emergency leadership (and budget-cutting may leave modern fire departments even more overwhelmed) in the event of a similar catastrophe. Given the cyclical but unpredictable nature of seismic activity (and other natural causes of disaster), the question of another major quake hitting a U.S. city is not a matter of "if" but of "when"—and in planning for that inevitability, we would be wise to heed the lessons of April 18, 1906.

ABOUT DENNIS SMITH

Dennis Smith, a former New York City firefighter, is the founding editor of Firehouse Magazine and the bestselling author of eleven books, including Report from Ground Zero, Report from Engine Co. 82, and A Song for Mary. He is currently chairman of First Responders Financial Company.

A CONVERSATION WITH DENNIS SMITH

What was the biggest challenge you faced in reconstructing the events following the San Francisco earthquake?

Finding the truth in any historical narrative is always a challenge, and for me this is particularly true particularly when reading the accounts of 1906—when newspapers from coast to coast were thriving because of the dramatic flair built into every headline. There were as many exaggerations in newspaper accounts of the earthquake and fire as there were hose lines snaking through the city streets.

The two major heroes of your story—Frederick Freeman and Jack Murray—were more or less forgotten to history before your book. How did you uncover their stories, and why did you choose to focus on them?

Commander Freeman's name appears in many accounts of 1906, but there was no comprehensive account anywhere of his life, his military career, or his contribution to the firefighting efforts in San Francisco. And so on a whim I asked Jim Baker, my research specialist, to go to the National Archives in Washington D.C. to check on Freeman's military records. I hit pay dirt there, and consequently was then able to construct a fuller life of this great and noble American (perhaps food for thought for a future biographer).

Jack Murray, however, grew out of a personal experience. When I created Firehouse Magazine many years ago I met some of the great twentieth-century luminaries in firefighting, the then Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department among them—Jack Murray's son Will. The chief also had a firefighting son, Bill Murray, who is today Chief of the Glen Ellen Fire Department in California. I searched for the third generation Murray firefighter and, finding him, made a friend and a good research assistant.

Your book Report from Ground Zero followed the firefighters who responded to the disaster at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. What parallels did you find between their stories and the stories of their brethren in San Francisco almost one hundred years before?

The great connection between these horrendous events is the human spirit. Surely, Providence has blessed this world with many heroes, and to me there are no distinctions to be made between the firefighters of 1906, the firefighters and police officers of 2001, and the soldiers protecting the long-range interests of democracy all over the world. Heroism wears no insignia of rank and bends for no specially constructed crown. You cannot tell a hero by studying the configuration of the body or the face. It is only a hero's heart that can be measured, a heart that defines character and courage, when we realize how each beat brings us closer to human perfection. The hero is a prudent person who treasures family and friends as much as anyone, a person who loves the hug and the smile and the kiss—someone who understands the vitality of life. And, sometimes, within the exuberance of this treasure and this love can grow the inspired action that might befall us in loss, in despair, in an utterly profound sadness. I see this inevitably in the eyes of children and loved ones at the funerals of firefighters who give their lives doing the work they love. The deep and hurtful sadness is always there, and yet, still, when you look past the tears and deep into the hearts and minds of those who are left behind, you will always find that one element of remembrance that can bring joy, and that is the absolute understanding of how courage and character together mold the heroic action, and how proud we are of the courage and character of those who put the value of the lives of others before the value of the love and friendship of those who are left behind. All fallen heroes leave emptiness and misery and grief, but they also leave a new and wonderful power, one that words and symbols and rituals cannot convey—the power of the courageous heart when it beats no more, and leaves us only a pure memory

One of the more fascinating aspects of San Francisco Is Burning is your depiction of early twentieth-century firefighting technology. Does modern technology give today's firefighters a major edge over their counterparts of the previous century, or have increases in population density proportionally increased the difficulty of fighting urban blazes?

Undoubtedly, firefighters are more safety minded today than ever before, and they are better equipped with protective clothing, helmets, and gear. But the technology of firefighting itself continues to be more or less what it was when the first human communities thousands of years ago organized themselves to put containers of water on a fire to try to stop its spread. And, so, the dangers of firefighting are always extant inside of a burning building, as firefighters are trying to get as close as possible to the fire to extinguish it with cooling water, for fire by definition weakens the structure so that the possibility of ceiling or floor collapse is always present, and the physical possibility—when a fire needs to suck oxygen from surrounding spaces—of a flashover fire (sometimes called backdraft) must be fought against. As long as interior firefighting is the most practical way to control fires there will be these ever-present dangers for our firefighters. And, of course, the more buildings there are in a community, they greater the chance that a fire department will be called out for an alarm of fire.

If you could take control of public funding for metropolitan fire departments, what changes would you make? What are the most critical issues facing fire departments today?

First, I would insist that any emergency-scene decision-making manager, in a city, state, or federal fire, police, or emergency management agency, man or woman, has spent his or her life in the emergency services, and that no emergency agency is headed by a political appointee whose chief skill is working on a political campaign. Also, I would insist on exact protocols for incident command in every possible situation. In addition, I would insist that all agencies interact in their planning and developing control and mitigation strategies, in training drills, and in response to managing destruction, man made or natural disaster, but within one uniformed incident-command system.

Second, I would have every fire department prepare for terrorism, for I do believe that a terrorist can drive through the plains states with a dirty bomb in the same way he can drive over the Brooklyn Bridge. I also believe that homeland security funding should be allocated according to probability scales, but that is no reason to not have the midlands unprepared. Homeland Security is a national challenge.

Third, I would have the federal government underwrite a minimum salary level for emergency service professionals, for I think it is a malfeasance that firefighters and police officers, EMTs and nurses, are paid so little in some parts of the country.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. The 1906 disaster in San Francisco bears striking similarities to 2005's Hurricane Katrina crisis—both were natural catastrophes made far more deadly by poor disaster preparedness. Have we, as a society, learned anything in the intervening century? Do you think the response to Katrina was better or worse than the response to the San Francisco earthquake? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about our ability to respond to similar disasters in the future?

2. The book details the efforts of the Southern Pacific Railroad and various civic leaders to suppress information about the earthquake, which they feared would discourage investment in the rebuilding of San Francisco. Can you find wisdom in this approach? Is there an argument to be made that the practical interests of a community are sometimes at odds with the pursuit of truth? Or do measures such as these simply perpetuate the same failures that led to disaster in the first place?

3. In crafting a narrative of the fire, Mr. Smith imagines details that cannot possibly exist in the historical record, such as Rudolph Spreckels and Amadeo Giannini passing in the street without noticing one another. Does this technique make you more engaged with the story, or do you prefer a "just the facts" approach to history?

4. Mr. Smith suggests that the Army's "shoot-to-kill" policy regarding looters failed to take into account the distinction between criminal behavior and mere desperation. Should our concept of "law and order" change in situations such as these? What sorts of otherwise "illegal" actions are you willing to excuse under extreme circumstances? Should the power of law enforcement officers be expanded during a crisis, and if so, by how much?

5. While it seems likely that many citizens were killed by U.S. soldiers enforcing the declaration of martial law, the San Francisco Police Department showed great restraint in the use of deadly force during the crisis. How do these contrasting reactions highlight the differing mentalities of soldiers and peace officers? Is it realistic to expect people who are trained to kill to rein in this instinct on a moment's notice?

6. Mr. Smith argues that "fire departments are like insurance policies, where the premium relates directly to amount of coverage." How much public money do you believe should be spent on disaster preparedness? What civic services would you be willing to sacrifice in exchange for greater "coverage"? Would you vote for tax increases to fund expanded budgets for fire departments?

7. San Francisco Is Burning focuses largely on the unsung heroes of the San Francisco fire, especially the firefighters and naval officers who battled the blaze. How important is it to highlight the efforts of individuals such as these? Should public money be spent to erect monuments to their service? What do you believe would be a fitting tribute?

8. Chapter 25 takes a break from the narrative to examine natural disasters from a geological perspective, arguing that "for the Earth an earthquake is no more disastrous than the opening of a lilac's petal." How did the inclusion of this perspective color your reaction to the events that followed?

9. In the years following the fires, both Rudolph Speckles and Fredrick Freeman suffered severe reversals of fortune—Spreckles ended up bankrupt, and Freeman descended into alcoholism. Did learning of their fates change your opinion of these men? Do the very human weaknesses of these men make their actions during the crisis seem even more heroic?