Loma Prieta Earthquake - October 17th, 1989
drawing © Marc Goldyne
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Narrative for the 15th Anniversary Commemorative of the
Loma Priet Earthquake JAMES DALESSANDRO - Author of "1906" - SFFD response to the Marina
- Portable Water System (PDF 0.07mb)
- NERT Story
- Guardian Comes To SF
- Marina Times article by Paul Lovinger - Cover (PDF - 1.5mb) | Second Page (PDF 0.4mb)
- Fireboats Then and Now (PDF - 1.2mb)
- Charles Scawthorn's article re. earthquake (PDF - 0.4mb)
- Emergency Response Services in the Marina 10/17/89 (PDF - 2.3mb)
- Phoenix soon to rise from dry dock...SF Chronicle
- Frankie takes a swim in S.F. Bay
- Built 1954, - Alameda, California
- Plant Monroe Engineering
- 89 feet long x 19.5 wide
- Draft 7 feet
- Displacement 146 tons
- 2,600 gallons diesel fuel
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Hose: 3,000 feet of 3" hose in aft hold
800 feet of 1 3/4" hose in fwd hold - 34 hours pump time or 19,584,000 gallons of water
- 9,600 gallons per minute of water pumped
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Crew: 1 officer, 1 pilot, 1 engineer, 1 officer, 3 firefighters (from Engine 35)
Stationed at Pier 22 1/2 (Embarcadero & Harrison St.)
The Firestation for Engine 35 was built for the Pan Pacific Expo in 1915 to show the world that SF had recovered from the 1906 earthquake. It was moved by barge to pier 22 1/2 after the closing of the Expo. The Marina district was built on land fill made for the buildings of the PPE.
Oct. 17, 1989: at approx. 6:20 pm, Phoenix was called to respond to the Marina, but with only three crew available - Pilot Arvid Havneras, Engineer Nate Hardy, and Lt. Bob Banchero. (All of Station 35's firefighting crew had already left for an earlier box call immediately after the earthquake.)
Phoenix pumped continuously with 10 lines working for 15 hours with two pumps wide open - at 6400 GPM (over 5.5 million gallons of water). The fireboat saved the Marina!
by Gerry Long
- www.sfgov.org/sfnert (S.F.F.D. NERT)
- guardiansofthecity.org (Guardians of the City museum)
- www.sf72.org/home (72 hours emergency preparedness)
- www.bayquakealliance.org (Bay Area Earthquake Alliance)
- www.spur.org (SPUR's 3 part publication: Before the Disaster, Emergency Response, After the Disaster)