Those base
wretches to whom plunder is always the first thought were as quickly
engaged in seeking for spoil in edifices laid open to their plundering
hands by the shock. Meanwhile the glare of the flames brought the
fire-fighters out in hot haste with their engines, and up from the
military station at the Presidio, on the Golden Gate side of the city,
came at double quick a force of soldiers, under the efficient command of
General Funston, of Cuban and Philippine fame. These trained troops were
at once put on guard over the city, with directions to keep the best
order possible, and with strict command to shoot all looters at sight.
Funston recognized at the start the necessity of keeping the lawless
element under control in such an exigency as that which he had to face.
Later in the day the First Regiment of California National Guards was
called out and put on duty, with similar orders.
RESCUERS AND FIRE-FIGHTERS.
The work of fighting the fire was the first and greatest duty to be
performed, but from the start it proved a very difficult, almost a
hopeless, task. With fierce fires burning at once in a dozen or more
separate places, the fire department of the city would have been
inadequate to cope with the demon of flame even under the best of
circumstances. As it was, they found themselves handicapped at the start
by a nearly total lack of water. The earthquake had disarranged and
broken the water mains and there was scarcely a drop of water to be had,
so that the engines proved next to useless.
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