It was an early wake-up call around 5a.m. on April the 18th, 1906 when an earthquake shook the city of San Francisco. The earth vibrated drastically for 45-60 seconds. In this amount of time, thousands of people were killed or severely injured by collapsing buildings. Gas and water mains ruptured and fires started annihilating what was spared by the earthquake.
The flames that burst destroyed the majority of alarm systems. More than fifty fires burned for three days. Nearly five square miles were burned down in the blistering hot inferno. As a result, over half of San Francisco’s population was left homeless.
In the interim, the now homeless citizens populated tent sites that were built by the city. Approximately twenty-thousand refugees went to live in the cottages. As houses were reconstructed in San Francisco, people moved out of the camps and back into homes in the city. By 1909, the entire metropolis was restored, leaving the camps thankfully empty.
The immense earthquake in San Francisco that resulted in catastrophic conflagrations took a significant amount of time to recover from. Those distressing and destructive calamities would not soon be forgotten. It is not questionable that this was one of the most calamitous tragedy in human history.
Young and Learning 