Identifier: historyofearthqu00aitk (find matches)
Title: A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Aitken, Frank W Hilton, Edward
Subjects: Earthquakes -- California San Francisco
Publisher: San Francisco, The E. Hilton Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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istrict map shows but two otherunburned spaces—the Atlas Building of tenstories, at Second and Mission, and the Cali-fornia Casket Company Building of sevenstories, on Mission between Fifth and Sixth.The latter was in itself fire-proof — of brickwalls and concrete floors—and was in a neighbor-hood chiefly built up of low frame structures; more-over, it was as yet uncompleted, and containedalmost no combustible material except its windowframes which, indeed, burned. The former, on theother hand, was in a well-built district and sur-rounded by buildings that burned fiercely. Its sidewalls were windowless except in the upper stories.The fire burned a few of the window frames of theelevator shaft, but there was not enough combus-tible material there to spread the flames. Theescape of the ordinary two-story brick buildingadjoining it at the corner of Second street, indicatesthat the fate of both was largely due to a freak ofthe fire, or some fortunate shifting of the flame cur-rents.
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C3 PQ > o o oa uO ^ ° o ^ S o «at 3 PQ CO C I * 3 o 1—1 r- o 7. 3PQ 0, MS A STUDY OF THE FIRE Tlie Kohl Building, at the northeast corner ofMontgomery and California streets, is an instancewhere thorough fire-proofing helped, though here,too. good luck counted. Owing to the peculiar cir-cumstances under which the fire approached theneighborhood, (which are narrated at page 79),the building was subjected to a fire test rather thana conflagration test. The fact that the windows ofthe upper stories are unbroken shows that they werenot subjected to the extreme heat of a surroundingconflagration. The fire entered from the low brickbuilding adjoining on Montgomery street andburned the contents of the second, third, and fourthfloors. The floors above were uninjured; doubtlessbecause all the woodwork was metal-sheathed andthe elevator shaft was practically cut off from thewings. If the halls had had the usual woodenwainscote rails and wooden doorways the fire would

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