Today In Western History: San Francisco Burns Again

May 3 —

On this day in 1851, San Francisco suffers a fire that wipes out 75% of the town, while killing 30 people, at a cost of $3.5 million dollars (or $100,621,542.24 in 2015 dollars).

The fire began around 11pm in a paint and upholstery store above a hotel on the south side of Ports-mouth Square in San Francisco on the night of May 3, 1851.  At the time, many believed it to be arson, but this was never proven and motive never established.  Helped along and supported by high winds, the fire had initially burned down Kearny St. but as the winds shifted, in part due to the heat of the fire itself, it veered into the downtown area, where the fire fed on the elevated wood-plank sidewalks,  The fire was so big, it could easily be seen for miles out to sea, and it continued to burn for about 10 hours, eventually consuming at least 18 blocks of the main business district, an area three-quarters of a mile long by a third of a mile wide.  By the time the fire ran out of space to move, by reaching the waterfront, it burned down over 2000 buildings, and in the opinion of many residents, this was nearly three-quarters of the city. One 19th century account of the destruction observes: “Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts. The total damage has been estimated at around $10–12 million, a good deal of it uninsured as no insurance companies had yet been established in the city.

Among the properties destroyed that day were the Niantic whaling vessel, which had been grounded on the shore with the intention to turn it into a store (this was commonly done at the time to get new businesses up and running fast, and when the space was more valuable than the ship itself.) and would subsequently be rebuilt as a hotel; a general store founded by Domenico Ghirardelli, who would go on to found 

Domenico Ghirardelli, Founder of the Ghiradelli Chocolate Company
Domenico Ghirardelli, Founder of the Ghiradelli Chocolate Company

 

 

 

 the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company; and all half dozen of the city’s newspapers apart from Alta Californian.

At least nine lives were lost in the fire, some of them in new, supposedly fireproof iron buildings whose doors and shutters expanded with the heat, trapping people inside.

 

 

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 Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com

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