San Francisco is basically a city built on the bones of its own ashes. If you walk down Market Street today, you’re looking at a tech hub, sure, but you’re also walking over a graveyard of wood and brick that burned to the ground more times than most people realize. Most folks think about the big one in 1906. That’s the heavy hitter. But the relationship between San Francisco and fire started way before that, back when the city was just a collection of tents and lawless shacks during the Gold Rush.
It’s kinda wild to think about. Between 1849 and 1851, the city burned down six times. Six. People would lose everything, wait for the embers to cool, and then just start hammering nails into wood the next morning. They didn't have a choice.
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The Great Earthquake Was Actually a Fire Story
We call it the 1906 Earthquake. That’s technically true—the ground shook at 5:12 a.m. on April 18—but the shaking didn’t do most of the damage. It was the fire. When the tectonic plates slipped, they snapped the city’s water mains and broke the gas lines. You had a city made of redwood—which burns like crazy—and no way to put out the sparks.
The fire raged for three days. It created its own weather systems. It got so hot that steel beams warped like licorice. Honestly, the most heartbreaking part isn't just the 3,000 people who died; it's that the city’s attempt to stop the fire actually made it worse. The military decided to use dynamite to create "firebreaks," basically blowing up buildings to stop the flames from jumping the street. But the soldiers didn't really know how to use explosives properly. They ended up just blowing burning debris into buildings that weren't even on fire yet.
Imagine watching your house survive an earthquake only to have the army blow it up an hour later. That happened. A lot.
The Ham and Egg Fire
There's this specific story about a woman in Hayes Valley. On the morning of the earthquake, she just wanted breakfast. She lit her stove to cook some ham and eggs. She didn't know the chimney was cracked from the quake. That one stove started a blaze that consumed dozens of blocks. It’s known as the "Ham and Egg Fire." It’s one of those small, human moments that ended up changing the geography of the city forever.
Why the City is Still Vulnerable Today
You might think we’ve figured it all out by now. We haven't. San Francisco is a nightmare for fire departments. The hills are too steep for heavy trucks to move quickly. The houses are packed together like sardines, often sharing "party walls" where if one kitchen goes, the whole block is at risk.
Then there’s the wind. The Pacific breeze is great for tourists at Pier 39, but for a fire captain, it's a blowtorch.
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The Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS)
After 1906, the city realized they couldn't trust the regular water pipes. So they built the AWSS. It’s a separate high-pressure system. You’ve probably seen the fire hydrants with the colored tops.
- Blue tops are connected to the high-pressure system.
- Red tops are standard city water.
- Green tops usually mean they draw from cisterns or suction sources.
Those underground cisterns are everywhere. There are over 170 of them buried under the streets, holding millions of gallons of water just in case the main pipes snap again. If you see a circle of bricks in the middle of a street intersection, you’re likely standing on top of a massive water tank.
The Modern Threat: Wildfires and Smoke
Lately, the connection between San Francisco and fire has taken a weird turn. The city isn't necessarily burning, but it’s breathing the fire. In 2018 and 2020, the sky turned a bruised, apocalyptic orange. It looked like a Blade Runner movie.
This is the new reality. Even if the city's brick-and-mortar stays intact, the surrounding California forests are increasingly brittle. The "Orange Skies Day" in September 2020 wasn't just a social media moment; it was a health crisis. The Marine Layer—that thick San Francisco fog we call Karl—actually held the smoke above the city for a few hours, which is why the sky stayed orange instead of gray. It was eerie. It was silent. It felt like the end of the world.
Lessons from the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire
We can't talk about SF without looking across the Bay. The 1991 Oakland Hills fire was a wake-up call for the entire region. It destroyed nearly 3,000 homes. It showed that "Urban-Wildland Interface" isn't just a buzzword. It’s a death trap. Embers from that fire were blowing across the bay. It reminded everyone in San Francisco that fire doesn't care about city limits or water barriers.
Misconceptions Most People Have
Most people think the 1906 fire was unavoidable. Historians like Philip Fradkin have argued otherwise. If the city had focused on decentralized water storage earlier, or if the fire department hadn't been led by a man who was mortally wounded in the first minutes of the quake (Chief Dennis Sullivan), things might have been different.
Another myth? That the "fireproof" buildings survived. Many "fireproof" structures of the era were just brick shells with wooden guts. They turned into ovens. The heat was so intense it melted glass windows, allowing the fire to "jump" inside and gut the buildings from the interior.
How to Actually Protect Yourself in the City
If you live here or you're visiting, you need to be smarter than the people in 1851.
Check your hydrants. If you live near a blue-top hydrant, you’re in a better spot for high-pressure response. But don't rely on it.
Air filtration is mandatory now. In the 2020s, every San Francisco apartment needs a HEPA filter. The fire isn't coming for your door; it’s coming for your lungs. When the North Bay or the Sierra Nevada burns, the smoke settles in the Bay Area basin and stays there.
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The "Go-Bag" is real. Because of the seismic risk tied to fire, you need a bag with three days of water. If the pipes break like they did in '06, the city will be reliant on those brick cisterns and the "Twin Peaks" reservoir. It takes time to deploy those.
The Future of San Francisco and Fire
The city is currently working on expanding the Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS) to the Richmond and Sunset districts. For a long time, the western side of the city was left out of the high-pressure loop. It’s a massive engineering project, digging up miles of street to lay pipes that will hopefully never be used at full capacity.
Fire is part of the DNA here. It’s why the streets are wide in some places and why the buildings are built with specific setbacks. We are a city that has been refined by heat.
Actionable Steps for Residents and Travelers:
- Identify the Bricks: Walk your neighborhood and look for the circular brick patterns in intersections. Map these. If a major quake hits, these are your primary water sources.
- PurpleAir Monitoring: Download the PurpleAir app. In San Francisco, microclimates mean the air quality in the Richmond can be totally different from the Mission during fire season.
- Check Your Walls: If you live in a pre-1940s Victorian, check if there is fire blocking in the walls. Many of these old homes have hollow stud bays that act like chimneys during a fire, sucking the flames from the basement to the roof in minutes.
- Register for AlertSF: Text your zip code to 888-777. This is the official channel for fire and earthquake alerts. It’s faster than Twitter or the news.
- Window Ratings: If you’re renovating, look into tempered or dual-pane windows. In 1906, single-pane glass was the primary failure point that allowed embers to enter "fireproof" buildings.