At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the California city of San Francisco was awakened by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Chaos erupted with the earthquake, leading to fires throughout San Francisco (Cameron and Gordon. Pages 69-73). The earthquake and resulting fires caused the majority of the city to be destroyed, with buildings collapsing and bursting into flames. Many people died and thousands and thousands were left homeless. This devastating earthquake plunged the city and the United States into a financial crisis. Although the 1906 earthquake was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the city of San Francisco was able to overcome the tremendous physical, social, and economic consequences it suffered. . The physical damage caused to San Francisco by the earthquake was considerable. The earthquake caused gas lines to rupture and chimneys to collapse, causing perhaps the greatest devastation of the earthquake, the fires. About fifty fires broke out around the city and, combined with the earthquake, caused the destruction of approximately 28,000 buildings (The Great San Francisco Earthquake: One of America's Worst Urban Disasters. 2005). The fires continued to burn for four days because water pipes had burst; therefore, the fire hydrants had no water. Desperation set in and firefighters and the army, having no water to stop the fires, used dynamite to create firebreaks. This ultimately backfired and led to an expansion of the fires. When the fires stopped, the city was left in ruins and 80% of it was destroyed (Dean. Pg 506). With much of the city destroyed, San Franciscans had to deal with the social consequences. Around 200,000 people were left homeless. Many of these people were immigrants due... middle of paper ......disaster aphia: Family ties, community ties, and disaster relief after the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906." University of Southern California. 88.1 (2006): 37-70. Web, March 5, 2014. .5. Gordon, Mary and Cameron King jr. "San Francisco Earthquake and Fire." Web. March 5 2014. .6. Starr, Kevin “The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself.” University of California Press 83:3 (2006): 45-61. April 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/251618217. (2006): 4-12. Web May 8, 2014. 8 Slavicek, Louise Chipley. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009..