San Francisco During the Eventful Days of April, 1906 | Page 6

passed many anxious hours until
Monday, the 23rd, when she heard that both houses were saved.
At 11:30 A. M. of Thursday from my window I could see blazes on
Jones Street at Clay, and southerly as far as Sutter and Leavenworth.
About this hour, although the fire did not reach here until after 3
o'clock, the soldiers and police drove the people from their stores and
houses on Polk Street. Johnson & Co. were ordered out and not
permitted to return to save books and papers, although they begged
permission to do so. I think the Pleasanton was on fire at about this
time. At noon the flames were continuous from Clay, on Jones, to
California. At 1:30 it had almost reached Hyde and Clay, and was
continuous from that point to Polk and Sutter, the blaze reaching from

50 to 75 feet high. At 2:30 it was approaching Van Ness at Hyde and
Washington, and reaching south as far as Sutter and Van Ness. I was in
my front room watching with my field-glass, house after house take fire
and the long line as I have just described. I saw many pigeons flying
wildly about, seeking some place of safety. As it approached Van Ness
it did not burn north of Washington Street. The wind being northwest,
and Van Ness Avenue 125 feet in width, I felt sure the fire would not
cross. While the fire was thus raging, the thought came to me, How fast
in value is property being consumed? - and as I looked at the line of
flame, I remember I thought it must be as much as a million dollars an
hour. It shows how imperfect in this matter was my estimate, when
later the loss is estimated to be four hundred millions, and the duration
of the fire, from 5:15 A. M., the 18th to 3 P. M. of the 20th - say sixty
hours, which would be at the rate of about six million five hundred
thousand per hour.
At 3 o'clock the soldiers drove the people north on Van Ness and west
up to Franklin Street, saying that they were going to dynamite the east
side of Van Ness. From my window I watched the movements of the
fire-fighters and dynamiters. They first set fire to every house on the
east side of Van Ness Avenue between Washington and Bush streets,
and by 3:30 nearly every one was on fire. Their method was this: A
soldier would, with a vessel like a fruit-dish in his hand, containing
some inflammable stuff, enter the house, climb to the second floor, go
to the front window, open it, pull down the shade and curtain, and set
fire to the contents of his dish. In a short time the shades and curtain
would be in a blaze. When the fire started slowly, they would throw
bricks and stones up to the windows and break the glass to give it
draught. It took about 20 minutes for a building to get well on fire.
From 4 to 4:30 St. Luke's and the Presbyterian Church and all the
houses on Van Ness Avenue from Bush to Washington were on fire. At
about this time they began dynamiting. Then they started backfiring,
and, as the line, of fire was at Polk Street, the idea was to meet the
flames and not allow them to cross Van Ness Avenue. This was a great
mistake, as it caused the whole of the blocks between those streets to be
on fire at once, which made an intense heat, while if allowed to
approach Van Ness from Polk Street the heat would have been much
less, and would not have ignited the west side of Van Ness. The

explosions of dynamite were felt fearfully in my house; those within
two blocks would jar and shake the house violently, breaking the
windows, and at the same time setting off the burglar alarm. As the
windows would break it tore the shades and curtains, covered the floor
with glass, and cracked the walls. After it was over I found that it had
demolished in my house twelve plates and fifty-four sheets of glass,
each measuring about thirty by fifty inches.
At 4:45 1 was ordered out of my house by the soldiers, - not in a quiet
manner, but with an order that there was no mistaking its terms and
meaning, - about like this: "Get out of this house!" I replied: "But this
is my house and I have a right to stay here if I choose." "Get out d--n
quick, and make no talk about it, either!" So a soldier with a bayonet on
his gun marched me up Clay Street to Gough amid flames, smoke, and
explosions. Feeling exhausted from climbing the