The fire caught the house from
the rear windows by the blaze from the Gorovan cottages. I feel quite
sure that if any one had been on guard inside with a bucket of water the
fire could have been put out.
When the Spreckels house was well on fire I knew, from its having an
iron frame, hollow tile partitions, and stone outside walls, there would
be no danger from the heat to my house. As I was quite tired, I told the
man Ferguson that I would go into my house and take a nap. He asked me
what room I would sleep in, and he promised if they were about to
dynamite my house, or any other danger threatened, he would knock on my
window to give me warning to get out. I went in and lay down on a lounge
in the library at 2 A. M. and slept until 5 A. M.. When I awoke and
looked out the flames were pouring from every window of the Spreckels
mansion. At 10 A. M. the house was thoroughly burned out. (The general
appearance of the house from a distance is the same as formerly, the
walls and roof remaining the same as before the fire.)
In the morning I went over to the California-Street engine-house, and
found it in ruins. Beams, pipes, iron columns, tie-rods, car-trucks, and
a tangled mass of iron-work; all that was not consumed of 32 cars,
bricks, mortar, ashes, and debris of every description filled the place.
The engine-room was hot, but I crawled into it through what was left of
the front stairway, which was nearly filled with loose bricks, and the
stone facings of the Hyde-Street front.
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