Module 3: "My Memories of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire" and "Dr. George Blumer’s Eyewitness Account of the Disaster"

On this dreadful morning I awoke at 5:15 a.m. and felt our house rocking like a cradle.

We all immediately dressed and the next shock we got was that the back of our house had collapsed.

The next thing we were ordered to leave as the militia told us they were going to dynamite our whole district, living on Jessie St. at the corner of Mint.

We then started on our way as true refugees.

In the fall of 1903, my father who lived in California being in poor health, I resigned as Director of the Bender Hygienic Laboratory, Albany, N.Y., and entered practice in San Francisco.

I was living in that city until 1905, and I mention this because in the fall months of that year there were 25 or 30 minor earthquake shocks, momentary tremors that did no damage.

I was living in that city until 1905, and I mention this because in the fall months of that year there were 25 or 30 minor earthquake shocks, momentary tremors that did no damage.

However, they most likely were forerunners of the more destructive temblor of 1906.

However, they most likely were forerunners of the more destructive temblor of 1906.

I realized at once that an earthquake was occurring and made for the doorway of my bedroom in which I stood so as to have the protection of the lintel if the chimney fell through the roof.

The chimney held, and after between one and two minutes the quake subsided.

Looking down toward the Bay where there were several large metal illuminating-gas tanks, I saw one of these slowly collapse.

The office, a substantial stone building, was not damaged except that a bottle of nitric acid, used for urine tests, had been shaken off a shelf onto the floor, had broken, and the acid had eaten a hole in the carpet.

On my way to City Hall I met a friend Arthur Smith, who suggested that we go for a few minutes to the office building where he worked, a skyscraper on the south side of Market Street, so we could take the elevator to the roof and look around.

After a few minutes I left for the City Hall, a politically-built structure, and found that it had been so badly damaged by the quake that the Emergency Hospital had been moved to the Mechanics’ Pavilion, a large wooden structure ordinarily used for exhibitions and prize fights.

One officer of the Marines was on horseback, the first time I had seen a horse marine, but whether he was the notorious Captain Jinks I did not stop to inquire.

General Frederick Funston was in command at the Presidio and he acted promptly, doubtless realizing that there would be opportunities for looting and that the regular police force would be entirely inadequate to cope with this.

General Frederick Funston was in command at the Presidio and he acted promptly, doubtless realizing that there would be opportunities for looting and that the regular police force would be entirely inadequate to cope with this.

I learned that most of them came from South of Market, which in addition to being a poor part of town with inferior buildings was, in its lower part, on made ground of which there was an area extending from the Bay at the Ferry Building up Market Street about to Montgomery Street and spreading to some extent laterally.

Somehow a policeman got up on the cross-beams below the rafters from the inside of the building and managed to put the fire out.

Dr. Hassler wisely decided that the patients must be evacuated promptly and this was done by calling in volunteers from the street and commandeering passing automobiles.

Dr. Hassler wisely decided that the patients must be evacuated promptly and this was done by calling in volunteers from the street and commandeering passing automobiles.

We managed to get all the living patients safely out before the fire got too hot, but about twenty dead in one corner of the building could not be removed and were cremated.

Dr. Hassler then asked me to go in an ambulance to one of the wharves on the waterfront near the Ferry Building where there was another group of injured.