The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-11-27

San francisco. cslif. Nov. b.
Although It il hard for the visitor
to imagine Z San Francisco more
enhancing than the present one. II
seems that such . phenomenon did
once exist. This was before the
IRE. Everybody you meet here
tells YOU 80. Praise any feature OF
| the city-ifs gay restaurants: Its
beautiful bay; its marvellous Col
Ii.den Gate park; it, pretty girls; its
delicious fish; its charming Presi-
dio, or it, picturesque Chinatown
and while the praise will be
pleasantly welcomed, II will i'm
mediately be qualified with: "Ah,
but you should have seen them
| or it-before the fret"
The term earthquake" rarely
enters into the conversation when
discussing the disaster which &C.
CURED in 1906. The tactful visitor
carefully avoids it, and the San
Franciscan ignores 1t. No one de-
MES that an earthquake did give
the city . slight jar In that mo
mentous year, but 1t was the fire
which followed that caused the
damage. All that the quake did
was to knocA over . few lamps and
at the same time break the water
mains, thus at one klow causing
the Ere and destroying the means
with which to fight it.
Ina least one respect, therefore,
the new San Francisco. which rose
phoenix like from the ashes OF the
old, is better than its predecessor.
1t is practically invulnerable
against fire. No second lesson was
needed. Everything That ec1ld be
done has been done to prevent an
other such catastrophe, and San
Francisco today is one of the best
fire-protected cities in the world.
! Another quake may knock over as
many lamps as it pleases. but the
city will never go up In fame as 1t
did before, because, aside from the
fact that most of it is now largely
fire-proof, an intricate system Of
water connecting has been estab-
lished so that if the water mains
are broken or fail at one place, or
even at several places, there will
still be plenty Of other sources to
be tapped.
i A Complete System.
Shortly after the fire in 1906, a
bond issue of 5000, 900 was raised
for the construction of this system.
In the first place, there is . high
pressure water supply. furnishing
$50 pounds water pressure from
three storage reservoirs located in
the hills of the city-one at an ele
walton Of 325 feet. one at 40 feet
and still another at $50 feet. In
these reservoirs 100000 gallons
of water are stored for freight
ing. In addition, there are two
high-pfessure, pumping stations
capable of pumping 10000 gallons
of water per minute each from the
Fay. These stations, housed in
strictly fire-proof buildings, are SO
i. equipped that they could operate
, for stretch of four days, If COM
pletely shut off from the rest OF the
city. The system also has a con-
nection with two steel fire boats in
the harbor, which can pump water
into the high-pressure hydrants
when the supply Of fresh water be-
comes exhausted.
. Furthermore, any section OF the
!. city can be cut OF from the rest if
it becomes necessary to concentrate
1.-THE water supply. II a pipe should
break in any section. this could be
Immediately shut of by valves.
These valves are located at every
street crossing, so that the city can
be segregated a block at a time.
Located in various sections,
moreover, are 100 cisterns contain
ing anywhere from $4,000 to 100,-
900 gallons Of water each, 30 that
II all the water mains should break
and every other source of supply
become exhausted, the fire depart
ment would still have these to fall
back upon. But even this is not all.
The law requires that every tank in
San Francisco holding 5000 gallons
of water must have a special con-
nection with the city water system,
in case the fire department should
| need to use it. Inasmuch as most
: Of the large Office buildings have
> such tanks for supplying running
: water and drinking water to the
various Offices, they constitute a
5 valuable reinforcement to all the
other water resources.
1 No city has stricter laws on the
subject Of fre-protection than San
Francisco. Every building Of four
!, stories or more must have'a fire
escape. All two-story buildings
5 operated for public use must be
: supplied with them, and any build
ing over one story in which ten OF
; moro women an employed is re-
quired to be SO equipped. Every
building in which oil is burned
must be supplied with an automatic
). cutoff, or il 1t hasn't one, the
plant must be under the supervis-
D. ion Of competent person, who
cannot be absent more than 20 min
utes at q time.
: Only three types Of buildings
may be erected: Type "A" which
: is strictly nre-proof; type "B" o,
reinforced concrete, and type &C.
consisting Of heavy timber or stee,
framework, and mason exterior. IL