2-889-589 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fourth Great Fire at San Francisco, 1850. Fire in California, USA. '..the wind increased as rapidly as the flames, whirling the black masses of smoke, the lurid sheets of fire, and immense quantities of flaming cinders, aloft and in all directions...soon the Pacific News building was in flames, and entirely consumed...it was painful to see the ejected sufferers, men, women, and children, sad and tearful, clinging to the few relicts of late fortunes and firesides. The Public Square was literally crowded with whatever could be snatched from the hungry fire. Up to a late hour last night many persons were still there, with the few remnants left of their former property and comforts...The total loss has been estimated at amounts varying from two hundred and fifty thousand to a million of dollars!'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.