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The wikipedia page of the 1906 earthquake[1] is quite instructive: > Capt. Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corps reported that he "was stopped by a
by blaze33 13y ago
The wikipedia page of the 1906 earthquake[1] is quite instructive:
> Capt. Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corps reported that he "was stopped by a fireman who told me that people in that neighborhood were firing their houses…they were told that they would not get their insurance on buildings damaged by the earthquake unless they were damaged by fire".
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake#Subsequent_fires http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake#S...
- ekianjo 13y agoWell in 1906 the US were not really the welfare States they have become (turning point after the 1960s).
- Spooky23 13y agoThe issue wasn't that simple. The Army marched in and pretty much went rogue -- they came in and started blowing up buildings to create firebreaks and caused more fires in the process. The city was also particularly vulnerable to destruction from fire. Lots of unstable landfill, the water used for fire fighting was in underground cisterns that were damaged, and key firefighting personnel were killed. There's a recent book "San Francisco is Burning" that is a really good account.