Interviewee: Arthur Giddings (AG) Interviewer: Carla Ehat (CE) Date of Interview: October 11, 1977 For a full transcript of this interview, please click here. Arthur recalls his youthful impressions of the flash fires that broke out around San Francisco following the earthquake. Audio Clip from the Interview (2 minutes 15 seconds)

Transcript of Audio Clip

AG: I remember the night, the evening of the same day of quake hit, which hit real early in the morning. I remember my dad taking me across the street that evening and we watched the town burn. We were up on Buchanan Street, between Herman and Waller, up in the hills. Well that, the State -- the Normal -- what was the State Teacher's College, which was built there later on, but there was nothing there, just a big open lot sloping down to Market Street, so the view was unobstructed. And we could see the flash fires breaking out all over the city, you know. Then after the quake, why -- it knocked out the water lines, power lines, streetcar lines and the whole thing, and the whole time it didn't all start to burn at once. These fires came sporadically following -- one would break out here and somewhere else and whatever. Well, for a little fellow three years old, this was just a gorgeous sight. I didn't realize what was taking place down there. It was spectacular to me, but I remember it, it's a vivid picture. Another thing I remembered was that orders were given to dynamite the block we lived in. They were going to dynamite other parts of San Francisco because there was no water to fight the fire and it was the only way they could block its path, its advance, the advance of the fire, was to blow down sections of the town, which they did. Well, they found out later they didn't have to dynamite our block so we were in the clear but, well, the doubt about that was prevalent. We were instructed to get out of that part of town, break out our houses and everybody in the block. My dad was able to either rent or borrow a horse and wagon, and he loaded my mother and myself and himself and the lot, and we went out to Golden Gate Park where there were thousands of other people who were ordered to go out to Golden Gate Park. We set up a tent made out of bed sheets out there, and we stayed there for, oh I don't know, for a day or two, I guess, until they informed us that they were not going to dynamite the block we lived in and we could come back home. I remember the ride out there and coming back, riding in this wagon, that's about as much as I can remember, and I can remember the flames and the fire and all that.

CE: But your home was not destroyed?

AG: No.


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