138 THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 
futile until late on Thursday night, after a dynamite expert had 
been put in charge. A last stand was made in the western part of 
the city, at the broad and open street, Van Ness avenue. Here the 
dynamiters, aided by the shifting of the wind to the west, were able 
to stay the progress of the fire. Everything in the Mission district 
had been burned, except at places where the flames were checked by 
means of private water supplies. Although comparatively feeble, 
the fire continued in some parts of the desolated district until Satur- 
day morning, April 22, when the last blaze was extinguished. The 
wharves and a fringe of buildings along the water front had been 
saved by means of engines and State fire boats drawing water from 
the bay. 
The area of the burned district (see PL LVI) is 4.05 square miles, 
or 2,593 acres, and includes 490 blocks entirely burned and 32 blocks 
partially burned. These blocks were in two different classes, one 
being the " 100- vara a block," and the other the " 50- vara." Some 
structures along Mission Creek and a few residences on the summits 
of Telegraph, Russian, and Clay Street hills (PL LIV) escaped. 
The mint and a few other buildings were also saved by means of 
private water supplies. 
Thus the greatest fire in the history of the world destroyed more 
than 4 square miles of closely built city property estimated at $500,- 
000,000, half of which was insured; with the loss, it is believed, of 
about 800 human lives (though the official count is less). 
San Francisco was little prepared to fight a conflagration under 
the existing conditions. Ever since the six devastating fires of the 
period from 1849 to 1852 the people had evidently relied on the excel- 
lence of the fire department (subsequently organized), the damp 
atmosphere, and the tradition that redwood, which composed the 
exterior of 90 per cent of the structures, would not burn. Dwellings 
were not protected against fire either from within or without, and the 
same may be said of most of the boarding houses and even of some of 
the public hotels. There were few chemical extinguishers, private 
water supplies, or other fire apparatus in existence. In the congested 
business district buildings that had ample modern means of fire pre- 
vention within, or protection against fire from without, were the 
exception rather than the rule. Few buildings had metal shutters, 
wire-glass windows, sprinkler systems (interior or exterior), or pri- 
vate wells, tanks, or pumps. Some buildings where these preventives 
were installed were saved, although surrounded by fire. 
Inflammable wooden buildings — remnants of the pioneer days of 
1849 — were scattered through the business districts and added fuel 
to the flames. The magnificent high steel structures that were gutted 
° The vara is the Spanish unit of length, and equals 33.38 inches. 
