Loss remembered, 100 years after a civic tragedy

It was 5:13 a.m. A floral wreath had just been laid on Lotta’s Fountain at Market and Kearny streets to honor those who died in the 1906 quake and ensuing fires, and those who survived. There was a call for silence, and the thousands of people present fell silent.

Then, church bells and fire sirens cried their warning for the tragedy that was to level San Francisco. Through the dark, four 5-ton steam fire engines drawn by three draft horses apiece clattered down Geary Street. Still, there was silence.

It was the only eerie moment of the festivities commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake, which were generally devoted to celebration of The City’s survival and rebirth. But the losses were remembered, even as Mayor Gavin Newsom called on New Orleans residents devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to look west and take heart.

“Three thousand people lost their lives. Twenty thousand homes were destroyed. Literally half the population was homeless,” he said. “Don't tell me you can't rebuild. They can rebuild and become stronger and better. These are American values. These are San Francisco values.”

The Lotta’s Fountain ceremony, organized by Taren Sapienza for the past 30 years and by the South of Market Boys since 1924, recalls how earthquake survivors left messages for loved ones at the fountain. Tuesday’s predawn revels included interviews of a dozen earthquake survivors by Newsom. All of the remaining survivors were very young children at the time of the quake, except for Chrissie Martenstein, now 109.

“I did remember the smell of the smoke,” said survivor Violet Lyman, 102, whose family fled to Vallejo after the quake while her father hauled The City’s wounded and dead in his truck. “It just seemed to hang over the town.”

A parade honoring San Francisco’s firefighters was held later in the morning. It being San Francisco, the proud Firefighters Local 798 union and the labor groups who took part in The City’s rebuilding were joined by lion dancers and motorcycle riders. The horse-drawn steam engines brought up the rear.

One of those engines was built in 1902 and was loaded on a train to The City from Reno to help put out the fires, according to George Toussaint of the California State Firefighters Association. But the tracks were in poor shape, and the engine never reached San Francisco.

The events were a culmination of a month of commemorative events, including a 1906 Earthquake & Fire Expo at the Port of San Francisco and numerous historical and earthquake-preparedness happenings. Among the oft-cited articles in the educational forums was one by Jack London, who wrote, “San Francisco is gone.”

“How wrong he was,” San Francisco Office of Emergency Services Director Annemarie Conroy said, lauding The City's spirit. “That is the real fire that burns.”