This book would be a great gift if you have a fire fighter in the family. It is very heavy on the firefighting details. It was also an indictment on when political corruption meets a disaster. ( )

This appealing narrative history offers a blow by blow account of the collective efforts of the San Francisco Fire Department, city officials, and Army and Navy officers to battle the fires triggered by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The book lacks citation to sources - there's a bibliography and a bald statement that "all information contained in this book may be relied upon as historically accurate", but that's all. Smith offers strong judgments of which historical figures deserve respect and which scorn. On the other hand, the short, staccato chapters keep the story moving, the particular figures whose stories Smith traces are well chosen, and he provides just the right amount of context of their lives before and after the fire. Beyond being a good read, the book should serve as a helpful case study for emergency managers and accident theorists. Two major take away lessons are the value of spontaneous, self-organized response by neighbors during an emergency; and the damage that a single, powerful emergency manager can unleash if he gets in over his head. ( )

Very interesting book. It was such a huge event that it gets a little long trying to cover everything and I definitely would have appreciated a period map of the city. But, all in all, I really liked it. ( )

Looks at the San Francisco Earthquake by focusing on the political coverup designed to downplay the earthquake and blame the greater damage on the fire. Does an excellent job of covering the disaster as well. ( )