San Francisco Fire of 1851
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The San Francisco Fire of 1851 (May 3–4, 1851) was a catastrophic conflagration that destroyed as much as three-quarters of
San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.


History

During the height of the
California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
, between December 1849 and June 1851, San Francisco endured a sequence of seven severe fires, of which this was the sixth and by far the most damaging. In terms of property value, it did three times as much damage as the next most destructive of the seven fires. Around 11 pm on the night of May 3, 1851, a fire (possibly arson) broke out in a paint and upholstery store above a hotel on the south side of Portsmouth Square in San Francisco. Fueled by increasingly high winds, the fire was initially carried down Kearny St. and then, as the winds shifted to the south, into the downtown area, where the elevated wood-plank sidewalks provided extra fuel. The fire, which was visible for miles out to sea, continued for about 10 hours and eventually extended to at least 18 blocks of the main business district, an area three-quarters of a mile long by a third of a mile wide. Before it was checked by reaching the waterfront, it burned down some 2000 buildings altogether, amounting by some estimates to three-quarters of the city. One 19th century account of the destruction observes: "Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts." The total damage has been estimated at around $10–12 million, a good deal of it uninsured as no insurance companies had yet been established in the city. Among the properties destroyed that day were the ''
Niantic Niantic may refer to: * Niantic people, tribe of American Indians * Niantic, Inc., mobile app developer known for the mobile games ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go'' Ships * ''Niantic'' (whaling vessel), relic of San Francisco Gold Rush *USS ''Nian ...
'' whaling vessel, which had been run aground to serve as a store and would subsequently be rebuilt as a hotel; a general store founded by
Domenico Ghirardelli Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli (; February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was an Italian-born chocolatier who was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California. Biography Early life Domenico Ghirardelli was bo ...
, who would go on to found the
Ghirardelli Chocolate Company The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is an American confectioner, wholly owned by Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli. The company was founded by and is named after Italian chocolatier Domenico Ghirardelli, who, after working in South America, move ...
; and all half dozen of the city's newspapers apart from ''Alta Californian''. At least nine people died in the fire, some of them in new, supposedly fireproof iron buildings whose doors and shutters expanded with the heat, trapping people inside. A vivid description of the fire occurs in author
Frank Marryat Frank Marryat (1826–1855) was an English sailor, artist, and author. He was one of the sons of Captain Frederick Marryat. He joined the Royal Navy at 14 years old as midshipman and made a number of drawings during his service on HMS ''Samarang ...
's memoir ''Molehills and Mountains'':


See also

*
List of fires This article is a list of notable fires. Town and city fires Building or structure fires Transportation fires Mining (including oil and natural gas drilling) fires This is a partial list of fire due to mining: man-made structures to extra ...


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fires 1851 disasters in the United States 1851 in California 19th century in San Francisco Fires in California 1851 fires in the United States May 1851 events