They fought the 1906 earthquake inferno and saved their homes
Chronicle staff report
Updated 9:00 pm, Saturday, April 11, 2015
1067 Greene Street, one of three surviving houses in that area from the 1906 earthquake, in San Francisco, Calif., on April 2, 2015.
The 1906 earthquake and resulting fire destroyed almost everything east of Van Ness Avenue. But when the fires were extinguished, one set of houses miraculously remained. This story is excerpted from the April 23, 1906, San Francisco Chronicle .
BLOCK SAVED ON RUSSIAN HILL
Owners Win a Desperate Battle With Little Water — The Dynamiters Diverted
Amid the ruins of Russian Hill, almost hidden from view by the mass of half-destroyed brick walls and chimneys, a number of fine residences comprising the block on the south side of Green street, between Jones and Leavenworth, are still standing, with green trees and lawns in the rear, like an oasis in the arid waste.
Sightseers who do not know of the desperate fight to save that row of homes remark upon the luck of the owners in escaping the holocaust. It was not luck that caused the flames to pass by and leave this little line of residences untouched.
Early Friday morning the owners organized a force of fire-fighters, and, with wet blankets and a small supply of water that thoughtful residents in the neighborhood husbanded in their boilers and bathtubs the flames were confined to the north side of Vallejo. Outbuildings and fences of all kinds were torn down by a score of willing hands. When the fire had been beaten off, from the Jones and Vallejo streets side a new menace presented itself from Leavenworth Street, where the houses south of Green, including the old Montgomery home, were seething furnaces.
A heavy west wind carried the flames across the street and down Leavenworth to the east side. The bucket brigade had its hardest fight at this point, and powder had to be resorted to remove the barns and other small buildings. Judicious use of wet blankets on shingle roofs and the removal of small timber from the path of the fire finally accomplished its purpose, and, after several hours of the hottest work few men have ever been called upon to do, five residences were saved in a district otherwise entirely consumed.
Added to the trouble of the little body of fire fighters was the almost irrepressible desire of the dynamiters to blow up the entire row. Only by constant argument and pleadings were the owners able to get the youthful officers in charge of the dynamiting to restrain their desire to demolish everything in sight.
It has seemingly been taken for granted that Russian Hill was totally destroyed and that there was therefore no special need of guards. Realizing the heavy demand made on the police for protection of the section west of Van Ness avenue, the residents of Russian Hill have organized a guard of their own, each owner on Green street standing duty for two hours each night.
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