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. Water might be drawn from
the bay, but the centre of the conflagration was a mile or more away,
and this great body of water was rendered useless in the stringent
exigency.

The only hope that remained to the authorities was to endeavor to check
the progress of the flames by the use of dynamite, blowing up buildings
in the line of progress of the conflagration. This was put in practice
without loss of time, and soon the thunder-like roar of the explosions
began, blasts being heard every few minutes, each signifying that some
building had been blown to atoms. But over the gaps thus made the flames
leaped, and though the brave fellows worked with a desperation and
energy of the most heroic type, it seemed as if all their labors were
to be without avail, the terrible fire marching on as steadily as if a
colony of ants had sought to stay its devastating progress.