The 1906 San Francisco Fire and Earthquake

"Just after 5 A.M. on April 18, 1906, an earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale ripped through sleeping San Francisco toppling buildings, exploding gas mains, and trapping thousands of citizens beneath tons of stone, broken wood, and twisted metal. Herds of cattle stampeded madly through the streets. The air reverberated with the panicked screams of the doomed and dying." (Kurzman)
To some, the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire was one of the most horrific events to take place in the twentieth century. An estimated ten thousand people died in the disaster. After the earthq…