146 THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 
EFFECTS OF THE FIRE. 
BUILDINGS. 
Structural steel in the steel-frame buildings subjected to the ter- 
rific heat of the great conflagration behaved satisfactorily wherever 
it was properly and amply protected by any method adopted for 
fireproofing. In no instance that has come under the observation of 
the writer has the steel been injured or deformed where such fire- 
proofing was of the proper kind and remained intact after the earth- 
quake. Unfortunately, in many places there was practically no fire- 
proofing whatever, or it was very poor in design or workmanship, 
or both, and as a consequence failed miserably. Columns were soft- 
ened and buckled. Girders were softened to such a degree that they 
sank by their own weight, some pulling after them the walls into 
which they were built, others falling into the fiery furnace below, 
as in the Cowell Building (PL LI, B), where the fireproofing either 
was lacking or proved defective in the fire. In such places the col- 
umns were buckled and some of them telescoped, thus removing all 
support for the floors above. In other buildings where the fireproof- 
ing was fairly good and effective, as in the James Flood and the 
Call buildings, the structure remained ready for rehabilitation. 
Although all the steel girders or columns that were subjected to 
intense heat on account of lack of fireproofing did not fall, yet many 
of them were rendered unfit for further use. 
Prominent among the steel structures was the eighteen-story Call 
Building, with dome and lantern, the architectural pride of the 
city. This building took fire through a tunnel leading from the 
power house in the rear of the building, across Stevenson street. The 
fire was drawn in by the draft up the 18 stories of the elevator shaft, 
which acted like an enormous chimney, the flames being sucked up 
to the topmost story with great force and rapidity. The heat, of 
course, became intense, and all combustible matter on the interior 
of the building was quickly consumed, but the fireproofing, although 
not perfect in design and execution, so far protected the steel frame 
that it remained only slightly damaged and ready for refitting. The 
marble lining of the walls and corridors, and the glass in the exterior 
and interior windows, were all destroyed, and the metal trimmings 
were to a considerable extent melted or ruined. But the steel frame 
and stone exterior, with the exception of that on some of the middle 
stories, remains little injured, and parts of the building are contin- 
uously in use. 
In the same way the James Flood Building, one of the newest and 
largest steel-frame structures, excellent in design and first-class in 
workmanship, was fairly well fireproofed; and although gutted by 
