Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

290 HISTORY OF THE BANKMr. Kains saved his own home by his personal efforts, returningto it and fighting the fire, as it broke out again and again,after his family had been ordered off the premises by the militaryauthorities. The chief damage his house suffered wasdue to the falling of the chimneys, which happened to almostall buildings, not only in San Francisco, but in the adjacentcities of Berkeley and Oakland.The office of the bank and the building in which it wassituated, with the all-important exception of the bank vaults,were completely gutted by the fire. By great good fortuneevery member of the staff escaped death or injury, althoughthe assistant manager, Mr. G. W. Bruce Heathcote, developeda serious illness from the physical strain through which hepassed. Another officer, the father of a three days' old infant,had the pain of seeing his wife and babe struggling betweenlife and death for weeks afterwards, as a result of the shock.Most of the officers of the bank had their homes on the otherside of the harbour, in the near-by cities, where the damage wasslight. Those who were living in the business district of SanFrancisco lost all their belongings by fire. One clerk who livedin the outskirts of the city had the extraordinary experience ofsleeping through the earthquake, and only learned of thedisaster while walking down town in the morning on his wayto the office.The following vivid description of the scene, contained ina letter from an eyewitness, Mr. J. A. Forster, a memb