The five - dismay fervidness that destroyed a San Francisco flat building this week put the urban center ’s municipal water supply to the trial : When water pressure began to dwindle down , fire-eater tap an emergency system of rules that was construct below the city — all the direction back in 1913 .
The six - story construction under building in the city ’s Mission Bay neighborhood catch fire Tuesday and rag into the dark , creating a mushroom cloud that billowed above the urban center . Over 90 ardor vehicles were shout to the view , which quickly overpower the water system of rules and vitiated fire-eater ’ capableness to pump urine out of the city ’s hydrants .
firefighter run for hosiery several blocks aside to a different set of hydrant , which are connected to the urban center ’s backup urine electronic web . create in response to the 1906 earthquake , where 80 percentage of the city ’s buildings were lost to fire , the organisation is , fundamentally , emergency - proof : It ’s power by solemnity from a pair of water tanks located atop the city ’s big hills : Twin Peaks and Nob Hill ( a third reservoir , also on Twin Peaks , is currently under construction ) . The Twin Peaks Reservoir retain over 10.5 million gallons alone , which provided enough water pressure to put out the fire .
Twin Peaks Reservoir , where the pee fall from that was used to fight this week ’s fire
The visionaryAuxiliary Water Supply Systemwas first proposed in 1903 by the city ’s ardor chief Dennis T. Sullivan ( who actually died in the 1906 fires ) , but it was the earthquake and subsequent fires that spurred the city to build up it : Over 300 urine main break in the earthquake , obliterating any chance of putting out the flames that engulfed the city .
What they ask was a system of rules with shock - resistant pipage that could maintain pressure and did n’t require the water to be bear long distances . The system was installed by 1913 , designed by city applied scientist Michael O’Shaughnessy , the same person who create the Hetch Hetchy water organization , which deliver San Francisco ’s drinking water from the Sierras .
A 2009 map of the system , the special fire hydrants seen throughout the city , via SFFD
Auxiliary Water Supply System is not as comprehensive as the metropolis piddle supply ; you ca n’t discover the 1,500 hydrants — which have black , carmine or blue caps to denote which tank they arrive from — in every neighbourhood . But the system is amplified by two source - power pumping Stations of the Cross , a fleet of fireboats that can aid pump seawater , and other underground cisterns ( marked bybrick lot ) , which make it a fairly live system , even by today ’s standards .
The splendour of the system is that it ’s altogether website - specific and an almost “ natural ” solvent which consider advantage of both the hilly terrain and the fact that the city is surrounded by water supply . Los Angeles , for object lesson , could well miss access to several of its aqueducts during a major earthquake , yet it has no similar emergency piddle supply in plaza .
Many San Francisco residents do n’t even know this system is hidde under their human foot , but hopefully the fire has demonstrated its importance : In June , San Francisco will vote on a $ 400 million bond certificate measure to inflate the connection . [ SF ChronicleviaFive Intriguing Things ]
AP Photo / Jeff Chiu
CitiesEarthquakesEmergenciesFirefightingSan Franciscourbanism
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