2-710-280 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Looking north up Mason St. from Eddy - Ruins of the Fairmont $4,000,000 hotel', 1906. The almost-complete Fairmont Hotel survived the earthquake, but the interior was heavily damaged by fire, and opening was delayed until 1907. A major earthquake struck San Francisco, California, USA, on 18 April 1906. As well as damaging many buildings, the quake ruptured gas lines, causing fires to break out. As water mains had also been damaged, firefighters had little chance of fighting the blaze, which went on to destroy some 25,000 buildings. In all, the earthquake and fires killed an estimated 3000 people - the most to lose their lives in a natural disaster in US history - and made more than half the city's 400,000 population homeless. Stereocard.