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Showing posts from November 18, 2012

San Francisco Earthquake Safe

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This one is less boring for the public than the others. Hell, I don't know; maybe it's more boring. But  warning: it's pretty long. It's about a job I did a couple of years ago. It involved opening a safe that was in a downtown building that got destroyed by the devastating fires that raged as result of the 1906 earthquake that destroyed San Francisco. This story originally ran in the industry newsletter I publish. I've been hearing and reading earthquake history ever since I moved to this area, but never guessed I'd have even a small part in recovering any of the history on it. I got a call from a construction foreman. While remodeling a downtown San Francisco building, his workers had unearthed a large old safe under a basement floor. The safe had been buried since the 1906 earthquake that destroyed most of downtown San Francisco.   Though he wasn’t clear on how the main outer double door safe got opened, it was gone. All that remained wa