Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1906-05-18
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non ana NOItll DcdCu, anu do tuN
relentless fend crept up the slopes !
of Mob Hill, Russian Hill and Tel
egraph Hill, these looked like i'm
mense citadels of fire overtowering
the plain and the valleys below, en-
veloped in the deadly red glare.
The proud city of the argonauts
was sea of flames. The crash of
the dynamite mingled its thunder
to the roar of the conflagrat'on.
Every once ina while as the root
of some large building would give
way hughe sheets of flames and
SPARKS would shoot up TO the heav-
ems.
There was hardly any water at
the first great shock most OF tn
mains were broken, some OF the
pipes lifted up in the air and stood
half way on their beam ends
Water was pumped from the bay
and in some instances the sewers
were used as cond1its hut to no
avail: here and there a few streams
from some reservoir would be used
with effect for little while, until
the fremen, fighting from behiLd
wet blankets, surrounded by flames
we're forced 10 retire, to renew their
brave fight further back. only to be
again driven away. Never was a
more heroic fight put up by lire
men and soldiery. Block after
block Of buildings in the path o.
the fire were blown up in the effor,
% check its course, but the dem n
laughed at wreckage as well.
From house to house. from street
20 street. from quarter to quarter
1t would leap and seize upon fresh
prey.
In one place in the Mission the
broken mains created a food, SLOW
lily drowning several inmates OF
wrecked houses pinioned in the
timbers before help could reach
them.
The City Hall went down at the
first shock; fortunately 1t didn t
catch fire. Its records, or most OF
them, and moneys are safe in the
vaults. The steel skeleton of its
dome, 800 feet high, looms up
like a gigantic beast whose entrails
have been torn out, exposing the
bare ribs OF the carcass.
The Mechanics Pavilion was
early in the day turned into a gen
eEal hospital and morgne. Sud
4 tuS tNSASa, AAiN DbiAo
ings caught fire from behind, and
beforeIall could be moved. it is said
the place (of ten thousand capac-
ity) was turned into huge funeral
fire. The Preside, the military
reservation, on the Golden Gate,
with its large forest was made the
headquarters for the wounded.
In the midst of all that hades, the
new Postofice of granite and mar
bic, stands white and serene. crack
ed only, (still to the extent Of
$500, ooo.) The Mint, the Gus
tome House and the Ferry building
stand practically uninjured.
Among the hotels of the South
side, the records of the number OF
people crushed or incinerated Is
greatest, reaching the hundred
mark in one instance Seventeen
men and twenty three horses
were killed by the collapse of the
Claw Street Market.
The earth seemed to move in
waves. In some places the side
walks are lifted up q to 6 feet, and
next to it a depression in the
ground equally as deep tells of the
force of the quake. The car tracks
and the cable slot in places are
twisted in zigzags.
Fire caught simultaneously at
twenty different places at once at
the first tremble which lasted from
so to 10 seconds, and which reall,
seemed an age. With a roar the
quake came from North to South
and twisting aud shaking and
rollicking that seemed never to
want to stop, and the work of de
struction, with all its heartrender-
ing scenes was on, rendering 900.
600 people homeless.
The third day of the conhagra-
ton a successful stand was finally
made on Van Ness Avenue on the
north and on Dolores street on the
south, two thoroughfares I25 feet
wide. Here all the available water
maS concen frafed rows after lows