The shaking earth was only the begining of the disaster.
Fires broke out immediately and began consuming the city.
Despite the efforts of the Fire department, the Navy, and the Army, the fire burned for 3 days.
One quarter of the city was burned. The fire destroyed 28,000 buildings,498 blocks were leveled, and over 250,000 were left homeless.
Reports from the San Franciso Fire Department
Navy Firefighting Operations

Map outlining the burned section of San Francisco

"The street was like looking in the door of a furnace. Flames and smoke rolled with the draught created by the intense heat, rolling up the street with a roar, then up hundreds of feet. It was an awful sight."
Fredrick H Collins

"By then the entire city from Kearny Street to the Bay, and North and South as far as the eye could see was one solid mass of fire, with the big buildings of the Financial District shooting flames high into the heavens. The whole scene was terrifying, yet majestic and awesome beyond the power of words a great city vanishing in flame."
Charles Kendrick
"It was weirdly beautiful. A thousand banners of flame were streaming in the cloudless sky from spires and domes and lofty roofs, the under-scene being a sea of glowing gold, angry and tumultuous, but brilliant beyond anything I had ever seen or conceived of; and magnificent in irresistible power, its great flaming waves leaping upon or dashing against the strongest creations of man and obliterating them."
Charles Sedgwick

"We sat there hour after hour, saying little, but awed by the almost incredible panorama before our eyes. There was nearly a semi-circle of furious flame, and a sky of smoke receding from the immediate foreground as far as the eye could reach."
Bishop William Ford Nichols

"...we climbed to an elevation in Lafayette Square, where we found the hill almost black with people, some coming to itas a place of refuge, others, like ourselves, to take in the full spectacular effect of the fire"
Bishop William Ford Nichols
Refugees in Union Square.
This was not a safe haven for long.
By the following day, the fire had overtaken it.

Map outlining the burned section of San Francisco
	"The street was like looking in the door of a furnace. Flames and smoke rolled with the draught created by the intense heat, rolling up the street with a roar, then up hundreds of feet. It was an awful sight." Fredrick H Collins
	"By then the entire city from Kearny Street to the Bay, and North and South as far as the eye could see was one solid mass of fire, with the big buildings of the Financial District shooting flames high into the heavens. The whole scene was terrifying, yet majestic and awesome beyond the power of words a great city vanishing in flame." Charles Kendrick
	"It was weirdly beautiful. A thousand banners of flame were streaming in the cloudless sky from spires and domes and lofty roofs, the under-scene being a sea of glowing gold, angry and tumultuous, but brilliant beyond anything I had ever seen or conceived of; and magnificent in irresistible power, its great flaming waves leaping upon or dashing against the strongest creations of man and obliterating them." Charles Sedgwick

"We sat there hour after hour, saying little, but awed by the almost incredible panorama before our eyes. There was nearly a semi-circle of furious flame, and a sky of smoke receding from the immediate foreground as far as the eye could reach." Bishop William Ford Nichols
"...we climbed to an elevation in Lafayette Square, where we found the hill almost black with people, some coming to itas a place of refuge, others, like ourselves, to take in the full spectacular effect of the fire" Bishop William Ford Nichols	Refugees in Union Square. This was not a safe haven for long. By the following day, the fire had overtaken it.