Real Voices From San Francisco's Great Quake of 1906

Bay Curious

KQED

Places & Travel, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Recently uncovered and long forgotten oral histories from Black Americans who survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire are front and center in this episode all about the stories history forgot. Given the racism of the day, how did the Black community recover from the devastation of the Great Quake? And how do people remember those moments when the earth shook and fire consumed the city? Additional Resources: Stunning Archival Photos of the 1906 Earthquake and Fire Read the transcript for this episode "We Were Here" by tanea lunsford lynx San Francisco's Historic 'Relief Cottages,' Built After the 1906 Earthquake, Are Hidden in Plain Sight Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQED comes from Genentech, the original biotech company.
0:05.3	For 50 years, Genentech has pioneered more than 40 scientific breakthroughs across various diseases,
0:11.1	bringing greater hope to patients everywhere.
0:14.0	Learn more at gene.com. That's gENE.com.
0:19.4	From KQED. Every year on April 18th, at 513 in the morning, San Franciscans gather at the corner of Market and Kearney streets to remember.
0:32.8	Once again, you crazy folks have come together at this ungodly hour to remember and honor the memories of those
0:39.1	hearty San Franciscans who survived being tossed from their beds 117 years ago this morning.
0:46.2	People come dressed up in period costumes, trying to inhabit the moment in 1906 when an earthquake
0:53.7	with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 brought devastation to the city.
0:59.0	Wednesday, April 18, 1906, 512 a.m. A great foreshock has felt throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
1:07.0	120 years ago, San Franciscans startled awake, only to see their city burning.
1:13.6	Fires rage and spread throughout the city.
1:16.6	They are not stopped until 74 hours later.
1:19.6	Many of San Francisco's finest buildings collapse under the firestorms.
1:23.6	Firefighters begin dynamiting buildings to create fire breaks. But the fire kept leaping over the lines, traveling further west.
1:31.3	The Great Fire reaches Van S Avenue, facing the decision to blow his city to pieces or watch it burn.
1:38.3	Mayor Schmitz finally agrees to let the army create a massive firebreak in the hopes that it can stop the raging
1:45.7	inferno. Friday, April 20th, 1906, 5 a.m. The firebreak at Van Ness finally holds and the westward
1:53.6	progression of the inferno is halted. It took more than three days to fully put the fire out.
1:59.9	And then San Franciscans took stock.
2:03.1	Nearly 80% of the city had burned.
2:08.7	The great earthquake and fire of 1906 were devastating to everyone living in San Francisco at the time,
	...

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