for nothing. No human power could
stay the flames. As darkness was falling the fire was eating its way
through the heart of this residential district. The mayor was
forced to announce that the last hope had been dashed.

All the district bounded by Union, Van Ness, Golden Gate, to Octavia,
Hayes, and Fillmore to Market was doomed. The fire fighters, troops,
citizens, and city officials left the scene, powerless to do more.

On the morning of the second day when the fire reached the municipal
building on Portsmouth square, the nurses, helped by soldiers, got out
fifty bodies in the temporary morgue and a number of patients in the
receiving hospital. Just after they reached the street a building was
blown up and the flying bricks and splinters hurt a number of the
soldiers, who had to be taken to the out of doors Presidio Hospital
with the patients.

Mechanics' pavilion, which, after housing prize fights, conventions,
and great balls, found its last use as an emergency hospital. When it
was seen that it could not last every vehicle in sight was impressed
by the troops, and the wounded, some of them frightfully mangled, were
taken to the Presidio, where they were out of danger and found comfort
in tents.

The physicians worked without sleep and almost without food. There was
food, however, for the injured; the soldiers saw to that. Even the
soldiers flagged, and kept guard in relays, while the relieved men
slept on the ground where they dropped.

The troops shut down with iron hands on the city, for where one man
was homeless the first night five were homeless the second night. With
the fire running all along the water front, few managed to make their
way over to Oakland. The people for the most part were prisoners on
the peninsula.

The soldiers enforced the rule against moving about except to escape
the flames, and absolutely no one could enter the city who once had
left.

The seat of city government and of military authority shifted with
every shift of the flames. Mayor Schmitz and General Funston stuck
close together and kept in touch with the firemen and police, the
volunteer aids, and the committee of safety through couriers.

There were loud reverberations along the fire line at night. Supplies
of gun cotton and cordite from the Presidio were commandeered and the
troops and the few remaining firemen made another futile effort to
check the fiery advance.

Along the wharves the fire tugs saved most of the