California Electrical WorksThe name California Electrical Works might be best known by collectors of telegraph and telephone insulators, as their “C.E.W.” marking appears on some of the more valuable examples. Formed in 1877 through a consolidation of E. C. & M. Co., California Gas Lighting, and the Pacific Electro Depositing Works, the California Electrical Works is said to have been purchased by Western Electric in 1908. But these photos reveal that two years earlier the Western Electric name was displayed clearly on the San Francisco facility. Why the name was already associated with the company isn’t known, at least not known to me. But what is known is that on April 18th of 1906, at approximately 5:12a.m., the area was struck by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
By 9:00 President Roosevelt had declared the city to be under Martial Law. Mayor Eugene Schmitz appointed the “Committee of Fifty” at 3 p.m. at the Hall of Justice, and gives the shoot-to-kill order: “Let it…be understood that the order has been given to all soldiers and policemen to shoot down without hesitation in the cases of any and all miscreants who may seek to take advantage of the city’s awful misfortune.” Besides their job of maintaining order, army troops were also used to dynamite buildings in an effort to slow the fire’s momentum.
These photos show the California Electrical Works building shortly after the quake and subsequent fires, looking surprisingly fresh all things considered. It cannot be overstated that, as severe as the quake was, it was the fire that destroyed the city. Caused by gas main brakes, campfires of the dispossessed and poorly controlled use of dynamite used to make firebrakes, it is estimated that the fire caused 90% of the damage. In an era of cataclysmic fires sweeping metropolitan areas (the Chicago fire of 1871 and the 1904 Baltimore fire come to mind), the blaze that the San Francisco earthquake sparked was the largest and most severe. Photographs taken during and after the four-day inferno, several of which are available at the end of this post, reveal a scene of far-reaching devastation that is reminiscent of Hiroshima. Approximately 3000 deaths and almost a quarter-million injuries resulted, with over $400,000,000.00 in total damages. The four-story California Electrical Works building was well within the boundaries of the area generally described as “totally consumed.” So how is it that their employees were back at work within days?
A number of the cities buildings were what was called “fire-proof”, and the California Electrical Works was rather advanced in that regard, at least by the standards of the day. Described as being of the “slow burning” type, the structure was constructed of brick with heavy wooden floors and roof. It had an automatic sprinkler system, fed by a 50,000 gallon water tank on the roof, and metal shutters covered a number of the windows. The building remained when all those around it had been consumed. Its survival is all the more amazing in the light of the fact that an adjacent warehouse was filled with wooden cross-arms, their incineration being of great duration and intensity. The Electrical Works required only the repair of windows on its west side and the restoration of a brick parapet wall on the north, it having collapsed during the quake.
Many photographs were taken in San Francisco during and after the fire, including panoramic scenes and views taken from airships. Here’s a few:

Hillside Spectators
Panoramic View 1
Panoramic View 2
Panoramic View 3 (Calif. Electrical Works visible in left third of photo)
Panoramic View 4