The fire that swept after the fact is the main source of the devastation. The 3 day inferno burned an area of 4.7 square miles. Majority of the homes and businesses went up like tinder boxes, many due to lax housing codes and slum areas. Uncontrolled fires burned, due to broken gas mains/lines and help from citizens in panic …show more content…
Buildings had collapsed, people were buried or missing, gas lines were erupting, water mains were breaking everywhere sending the needed water flooding out into the streets or pluming into the air, streets were blocked making it impossible for any type of emergency crews to gain access to victims, and chaos had taken over in every direction. 28, 000 buildings were destroyed in the quake (Staff). This type of devastation there is no warning, not in this era they basically never knew what was coming or what hit them. City officials could not warn anyone of the grave danger they were all in; they had no provisions for the