3 ms·

Why is it strange when everything was built out of wood, and indoor fire suppression systems didn't exist? Oh and everything was lit with candles and lanterns.

• lostlogin 3y ago
  Everything is built of wood here in New Zealand and always has been. We have plenty of earthquakes too, but I’m not aware of massive fires like San Francisco suffered. The risk of massive spreading fire seems likely to relate of building density.
  • chrisco255 3y ago
    When is the last time a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand? What was the population of New Zealand's largest city in 1906? San Fran was at about 400K and the city was dense due to its geography.
    • lostlogin 3y ago
      That’s my point - I think fire is a density thing and there is a lot of it in most buildings. We have had some earthquakes of greater magnitude than 7.9, and some with truely massive ground movement relative to their magnitude. Napier earthquake (7.8) would be the closest in time and magnitude, but the population was tiny (<20k) in comparison to San Fransisco so building density was much lower. We have had some very bad ones, but the low population has been helpful but some cities (like Christchurch) have been hit very hard. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Hawke%27s_Bay_earthquake https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931_Hawke%27s_Bay_earthquak... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_New_Zealand https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_New_Z...