Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-07-09
PRIVATE
WATER
WORKS
Save a Large Section of San
Francisco From Des-
tructi0n by Fire

One section OF san Francisco Wnlcn
escaped the fire has hardly been men
toned outside The news has been
spread abroad that the greater por-
tion of San Francisco has been de-
stroyed by the fire of April Is to
20, including the entioe bushes and
manufacturing section, and the major
part of the residence section. The parts
which escaped destruction were emu
merated, and included the Western
Addition west of Franklin street, Pa
eifo Heights, Presidio Heights, the
residence section about Golden Gate,
Park, that portion of Hayes valley
west of Octavia stneet, and part of the
Mission beyond Twentieth street. Hun
dreds of houses, homes and shops east
of Howard and South of Fourteenth
street escape, the fire. and are as
good today as they were before the
earthquake, because the slight damage
caused by the earthquake has been re-
paired and every trace of injury OBJ
liberated.
1t has BEEN the cause of much won
der since the fire how that particular
section escaped the ravagesj of tho
flames, which swept all else in their
path west of Howard street and north
of Fourteenth street. Built entirely of
wood, the houses stand very close to-
gether, and numerous narrow streets
subdivide the thickly built squares be-
tween the main thoroughfares. Yet it
escaped and the foresight and fore
thought of John Center saved it.
John Center, now in his ninetieth
yean, came to San Francisco in 1S49,
and settled on the land which he and
his many houses occupy on Sixteenth
Sevent nteenth, Folsom, Harrison and
Alabama streets, He constructed his
own water system as early as 1851,
and improved the original syst EN- as
time advanced and the demand in
creased. 1t includes artesian wells,
large subterranean reservoir, two
frame tanks with a capacity of $4,000
gallons each, fire hydrants and con-
nections. In this system the artesian
wells flow into the underground els
tern, from which the water is pumped
int 20, lyta hxon ofp xvit
a capacity of 10000 gallons per hour.
Those who assisted in fighting the
fire and succeeded in checking it and
saving all of Center's property within
a radius of three blocks square, in
Guiding Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Fol-
som, Harrison, Alabama and the in
tervening streets, tell how that sec
tion of the city was saved from the
flames.
When the fire crossed Fourteenth
street, the dwellers of that section put
up persistent and stubborn fight to
stay its progress. With two streams
of water from the John Center system
four engines were supplied, and the
fi-e checked on Fourteenth street, and
again on Howard street. When
checked in one directiony however, the
flames came back from another, and
on Thursday morning came back by
way of Sixteenth street.
Again the fire was checked at How
ard street, after the flames had been
fought necessarily for twenty-seven
hours. Center saved every house he
owns; not shingle of one of his
houses burned. while the damage from
the earthquake was t-ifing, and
amounted to only broken chimneys,
cracked plaster, and wrenched brick
foundations This, of course saved all
the property east of Howard street
and south of Fourteenth street.
On Friday morning, April goth,
there remained six feet of water in
the tanks, enough to have maintained
two streams for fifteen more hours,
or to have fed one stream indefinitely
from the large subterranean reservoir.