survivors of the 1906 san francisco quake share their memories. >> the thunder is never as loud as that noise we heard that morning. it was a crash that came from everywhere. it shook our beds out in the middle of the room. and we got out of the bed and it pulled us back into bed. >> reporter: and recall the fires and destruction that followed. >> my brother picking me up from the -- and i looked at san francisco burned and the sky,

the whole sky was this red, as red as a beautiful sunset. >> reporter: what kept the city from chaos. and what the city learned from the great disaster all straight ahead on a second look. >> reporter: good evening and welcome to a second look. i'm julie haener. at 5:13 on the morning of april 13, 1906 the san andreas quake jolted people awake. buildings collapsed and fires raged. a stark reminder from the usgs last week that this terrible historic event could be part of the state's future. according to a new study released by the agency there's a 7% chance for magnitude eight or greater earthquake over the next 30 years. tonight we hear from those who

survived that terrifying day back in 1906. delving into our ktvu archives we've added many interviews from eyewitnesses preparedded by george watson in 1950. >> reporter: by 1906, san francisco had already gone by one amazing transformation. it had grown from a gold rush harbor town into a bustling city that was the cultural and financial city of the west. it was the newest and brightest jewel in america's crown of great cities. it's 400,000 citizens were prosperous and considerably content. they had not planned for the unexpected and the unexpected hit shortly after 5:00 a.m. the morning of april 18, 1906. >> the thunder is never as loud as that noise we heard that

morning. it was a crash that came from everywhere. it took our beds out in the middle of the room. and we got out of bed and it threw us back and pulled us back into bed. >> the bed went up to the wall by the window. my mother quickly grab me. the next thing my dad comes running up and says get your clothes on, quick get your clothes. >> my mother was very level headed and my grandmother was also. and they put us under the table because my mother would not get out of bed. she said if the house was going down she was going down with it. >> i didn't feel the big quake but i woke up and i was injured. >> you were sharing that room with your aunt. >> she was sleeping in bed right beside of me and she was killed. >> somebody shook my bed and i woke up screaming. i remember that moment because

i was very scared. i thought someone had come and knocked me down. >> reporter: streets burst and buckled. the great buildings of the financial district simply disappeared in the piles of unrecognizable rubble. >> market street was in pretty bad array. i walked in the middle of the street because i never knew when i would be saluted by something to the head. >> my father woke up to go and buy the produce. the moment that the quake hit he was talking to gentlemen friends. he was frightened and ran across the street. he never came back. >> the house split in half. and their beautiful piano she couldn't save that or any furniture. we just got out with our lives we came downstairs and the street was open. about two feet right at the curb. then we went downtown to my mother's home.

and the cobble streets were all broken up and the rails, car rails were all like helix up and down. >> reporter: that's what they remembered, this is what they saw. the devastation was complete. downtown was in ruins. news of san francisco's dark day spread all across the country. >> we were petrified, we were petrified. everything that was made of brick was on the grounds. and every man was comendered to clear bricks. >> everybody was trying to free everybody. we couldn't do it. >> my brother saw terrible sights. some of the buildings had fallen and the poor things were caught in beams calling to him help, help. but he couldn't get them out. they were stuck there.

>> she said she stood on top of this hill my aunt grace. she said the fire and earthquake i watched begin peaks and it was like a snake. it was going just like that during the earthquake. and she said as it went like a snake, the fires would burst out and it would go, snake then burst fire, burst fire. >> reporter: more than 50 fires broke out as a result of the quake. >> it was a continuous flame. you couldn't tell what street you were facing. except that i knew that i had been at the base of the clock on the ferry building. why i was in front of market street. well that was all enclosed with a terrific flame fire and the tragedy of it all was that i stood there and watched the firemen try to get up market street.

they tied a rope around their waste and walk to the flame and try to get through it. pretty soon you would see the rope slacking and stop. then they would pull him back. with no water they couldn't do anything. it was just impossible for them. firemen just standing around watching flames. that's all. they couldn't do nothing. >> it was the fire who got him. he came into our home and said get out as quickly as possible. all the water mains and sewage had been up driving away from the fire lines. and my mother, saw seven fires from our back porch right after the earthquake. >> we knew we would be unable to stop it before they got to 20th. so we went into houses along on the north side of 20th. and we tore doors off. so we made barricades out of the doors so we would have some protection from the flames. so when the fire did come, we

had everything ready. we saved everything south of the south side of the 20th. >> over on hayes, a woman cooking would start a cooking fire. it came to be known as the ham and egg fire. >> people all over town would try to light their stove and wherever they would light a stove, there would be an explosion. and if they didn't try and do that the fire would not have gone so far. >> we're surrounded by fire. there's no water, no transportation, no gas, there wasn't anything. nobody knew what was going on beyond the fire. >> dad took us to the top of the fairmont and from there we saw four big fires at 10:00 in the morning.

big fires. we thought the whole city was going to be burned. it didn't thank heaven. but the whole downtown was. >> reporter: south of market where the devastation was total and swift. after the quake, matt kessler left his home and went looking for his friends and he was appalled by what he saw. >> oh my, the streets there was a car that road up and down that street and oh it was caved in where the sewer came through the middle of the street. and there was destruction of all the street line, there was nothing but crooked houses and destroyed streets all everywhere.

>> they had no water. and they just went around blasting things. they decided that they can't put out a fire and the fire was getting closer to the building and they couldn't have any water to put out a building, so they blasted it. >> everything fell down and then we were ordered out. and we slept the first night at the park. and the second night we were at the twin peaks. that's where they did their blasting. boy, the city sure went up. >> fires were burned for four days. >> each morning i would go up to buena vista park above the hospital and watched the city

burnful. >> my brother picking me up and saying look at san francisco burn. and the whole sky, the whole sky was as red as a beautiful sunset. the wind would plow all the ashes. it's all the stuff in the backyard days afterward. >> still to come on a second look. coping with life in a city of ruins. >> we went out to golden gate park one night and slept there like many people did. it was just, sort of a, like being in the circus. something is going on and you didn't know which way to look really. i just remember it as a very exciting time. >> and it was destruction after many of the quakes. >> someone would tell you, burn your house down.

>> that's coming up.

welcome back to a second look. the 1906 quake lasted only seconds but forever changed the city. thousands died, but the quake tested the spirit of those left behind. >> reporter: the downtown was destroyed, neighbors were lost and the people who survived they were lost too. >> when we were going along taking our stuff, you know. out to haight straight. we would meet people dragging a sewing machine, a parrot maybe. and they offered us everything they had just to have fun. hands with rings on them. they opened their pocketbook. help us and we couldn't do it. and it was heartbreaking to see that. >> reporter: by saturday when it was finally controlled, 490 blocks were destroyed. 28,000 buildings had been

leveled. and the city's 400,000 residents, 250,000 of them were without homes. >> everything was burned. everything, people were scared to go back into their homes. they were staying in the park. >> there was one person who took their horse and wagon and went to the butcher town and brought meat. they put a sign up meat for sale. the people were going to lynch him because he got the meat for nothing and was going to sell it. >> reporter: the city teetered in the midst of chaos. >> and i said wow, the city was burning they had a marshal law that no fires inside the house. so mama came down with a candle and he said put out that light.

but i have to have it to get things out of the bureau drawers. put out that light or i will shoot. out with the light. >> i saw a man digging his own grave. when they got finished the guy shot him and covered him up. he was a looter, and i imagine he must have been a military man because i don't think they would do that to a civilian. >> reporter: the city survivedded because of its people. it's true the city was gone, the streets unpassable and just a desolate garden of rubble. but from this the people gave the city their own spirit. together they built that undefinable something called character. >> it was marvelous the

cheerfulness of people. to determined when everything was gone. it was marvelous the way people took it. >> we lost everything in the house. to us it was funny. it wasn't serious. even now it isn't. if it happens what can we do. >> we went out to golden gate park one night and slept there like many people did. my brothers would stand in the red line which to get food every day and that was like being in the circus. there was so much going on you didn't know where to look. i just remember it as a very exciting plan. >> put me in a garbage can, that would be a playpen so i could peak up and be amused by people. >> reporter: businesses and services began to resurface and san francisco was the city that surviveed the great quake and

fire of 06. it had taken the worse and survived. the city now had a style of its own. a character would allow it to live the way it wanted. san francisco would live for today because it now knew what tomorrow could hold. >> do you know something, i am very much like most people of san francisco. i'm not afraid of them. >> this is george watson for segment two. when we come back on a second look. from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and fire came a reviral of an old idea to protect the city from flames. >> and the city lay in ruins. but the official line was hundreds who died. why some knew the truth was buried. >> i knew there had to be more.

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in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. san francisco city planners began looking for a way to shore up the water supplies should another great fire break

out. and as rob roth reported in 2006, that was how the city's back up water system was created. >> reporter: san francisco's firefighter know better than anyone that an earthquake is often a two headed monster. first the jolt, then inevitably the fires that follow such as those that ignited in the marina district in loma prieta. firefighters of the time stood around while the water system failed them and they had to stand around and watch the city burn. survivors remember that. >> i had a cousin that was a fire fighter and he came to our home and said, get out as quickly as possible. all the water has been lost, there's no way to fight the fires. and my mother saw seven fires from our back porch right after the earthquake. >> reporter: the city rebuilt and ask itself this question.

>> you want to keep water to keep people alive or to use water to fight fire and it's that vicious circle. >> reporter: san francisco decided to have both. two water systems one for people, one for firefighter. but the problems say engineers are the pipes are underground and can easily rupture in in multiple places at the same time. especially in places like the marina. >> we can bypass the break part and recreate the loop. so we can have water. we will have water. >> reporter: and san francisco now has something the city of 06 did not. fire boats. two of them that will be expected to keep the water pumping and fire hoses at full power up to two miles offshore. >> the fire hydrant that won't go dry. it has the whole pacific ocean to draw from. it survives an earth quake.

it's reliable. >> reporter: the city has more than 170 of these scattered about towns. cisterns or underground tanks holding a minimum of 150- gallons of water each. the tanks are checked every week to make sure they have no leaks. in 1906 there were almost 250 fire firefighters on duty. and now 339 with most firefighters living out of town. still, in a major effort quake so many factorss from the weather to how many main roads are choked with debris will simply be out of the firefighters control. >> when we come back on a second look, how many people were killed by the quake? why some say that answer remained hidden for decades.

welcome back to a second look. the 1906 earthquake was one of the nation's worse n aturaldisasters striking densely populated san francisco with verocity. in disaster as in war the truth itself can be a casualty. >> reporter: san francisco streets were still smoldering, it's dead still buried in rubble but for many in the city the first priority wasn't rescue, it was down playing the

disaster. >> there was a calculated effort thomasing -- calculated effort of the 1906 earth quake. >> there were buried bodies, burned bodies and a proclamation for officers to shoot and kill. and when looters were found officers did shoot to kill. and there was a report that 106 people were dead. >> i knew there had to be more. >> reporter: the real death toll was at least 3,000 perhaps 6,000. >> eugene smith the mayor of san francisco. his number one priority was to get the city of san francisco rebuilt. he was not concerned with an accurate portrayal of the dead.

>> reporter: james delasandro was the author of the novel 1906. he believes the mayor and government tried to cover for the loom and doom to cover up their own mistakes and to try to bring back investors. >> if you say to someone, to a real estate company or a bank, or a developer, that the ground beneath you is unstable, that's a frightening thing. if you say, folks a big fire got out of control. we'll build up the fire department and it'll never happen again, that's something people can contend with. >> photos were doctored to cover up quake damage and just show the fire. there was no earthquake insurance back then but there was fire insurance. so the earthquake refugees who slept in parks and waited in line for hand outs. >> talking to a neighbor and

said, somebody will tell you. burn your house down. >> reporter: it was as if an entire city was committing insurance fraud. >> everybody had a part in this. >> and that's it for this week's second look. i'm julie haener. thank you for watching.

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