At 5:12 a.m. on April 18,1906, the people of San Francisco were awakened by an earthquake that would devastate the city.
But when calculating destruction, thee earthquake took second place to the great fire that followed.
The main temblor, having a 7.7-7.9 magnitude, lasted about one minute and was the result of the rupturing of the northernmost 296 of the 800-mile San Andreas fault.
The fire, lasing four days, most likely started with broken gas lines(and, in some cases, was helped along by people hoping to collect insurance for their property-they were covered for fire, but not earthquake, damage)