The Taelemans´ Blog

This picture of the bell of an SFFD fire truck was taken in one of the 48 fire stations the city has. The SFFD was formed in 1850 and the largest disaster in which the fire department was involved was the 1906 earthquake. The department found itself reduced to fighting the fires of the quake aftermath with axes and shovels, as most of the city’s water mains were broken.

SFFD Fire Truck Bell

A few weeks after the disaster, Chicago-based photographer George Lawrence saw an opportunity to capture a unique image of the sprawling ruins using his “captive airship,” a hand-built, 49-pound panoramic camera suspended from a series of kites. Lawrence’s foresight earned him a small fortune of $15,000 (more than $300,000 today) selling copies of his achievement. Click the picture to see the enormous detail of the image.

San Francisco in Ruins by George Lawrence