was stopped, and later learned
that it was because the earthquake had broken the water-mains.

I then started on foot down-town, this was about 7 A. M.; no cars were
running on any line. The sidewalks in many places were heaved up,
chimneys thrown down, and walls cracked by the earthquake. St. Mary's
Cathedral and Grace Church gave no outward sign of being injured;
neither did the Fairmont Hotel. I went on California Street, over Nob
Hill, and as I got in sight of the business part of the city, I saw as
many as ten or twelve fires in the lower part of the city. The wind was
light from the northwest, and the smoke ascended in great columns, and
the sun through it looked like a large copper disk. When I arrived at
California and Montgomery streets the lower part of both sides of
California Street seemed to be all on fire. I did not realize that the
whole city would be burned. I had a vague idea that it would stop, or be
stopped, as fires had been hundreds of times before in this city. I went
along Sansome Street to Pine and down Pine towards Market. I saw that
Holbrook, Merrill & Stetson's store was all on fire, and when I arrived
at Front Street I saw that the Commercial Block on the southeast corner
of Front and California streets (on the fifth floor of which was my
office), was not on fire. So I started to go toward the building. The
fire was then burning fiercely at the southeast corner of California and
Battery. I went to the entrance at 123 California Street and met the
janitor coming out, who said I could not go upstairs, as the building
was on fire on the fifth floor. However, I started slowly up. The sparks
were coming down into the open area in a shower, but there was no smoke
in the building, so I was sure that it was not on fire on the inside. I
got up to my room on the fifth floor and found the door would not come
open. I tried the door in the adjoining office of the American Beet
Sugar Company and found it open. From that room I got into mine. I
raised my shades, and the fire was blazing at Battery Street and
California, fully seventy-five feet high, and not more than three
hundred feet distant from me. I looked through the hall and rooms and
saw no smoke, and was sure that I was safe for a few minutes. As I
turned the combination of my safe to open it another shock of earthquake
came, which confused me a little, but I persevered and opened it. I had
a quantity of souvenirs and presents which had been given m