At 5:13 a.m. on April 18, 1906, an earthquake (est. close to 8.0 on the Richter scale) struck San Francisco, California, killing hundreds of people. The brick buildings and wooden structures of the day were far from earthquake-proof. Buildings toppled or burned down, and the resulting fires could not be extinguished because of ruptured water mains. Many people had to be evacuated, and it took years for the city to re-build.
