NFPA Journal - March/April 2018 - 88

THE DAY THAT
SHOOK L.A.

THE LONG BEACH EARTHQUAKE
OF 1933-SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
By Angelo Verzoni
n the evening of March 10, 1933, a
powerful earthquake rocked Southern California, hitting the cities of
Long Beach and Compton particularly hard. Exterior walls were torn
from buildings, bricks smothered roads and sidewalks, and critical infrastructure was crippled.
The magnitude-6.3 quake killed an estimated
120 people and injured thousands more. Loss
estimates at the time soared to around $50 million-nearly $1 billion in today's money. Hundreds
of firefighters and police officers from dozens of
departments responded to the incident, while
physicians struggled to save the injured by performing surgery by candlelight.
A Los Angeles Times article described the scene
in Los Angeles: "In the downtown section where
buildings swayed and shook for minutes, falling
bricks, chunks of cement and building material of

88 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 8

FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY

all kinds rained down. Huge pieces of
cement and bricks crashed through the
tops of parked automobiles and in many
instances injured pedestrians, thousands of whom were wending their way
homeward from the downtown district."
Reports published that spring by
NFPA and the National Board of Fire
Underwriters stressed the need for
Southern California's buildings, as
well as the region's power and safety
infrastructures, to be better prepared
to withstand earthquakes. The quake
exposed deficiencies in Long Beach's
fire protection systems, according to the
NFPA report, while the city's firefighting
capability was limited by "small breaks in the water system, failure of
the fire alarm system, partial failure of the telephone system, collapse of
some of the fire stations and consequent barricade of debris, accumulation of debris in the streets, and some casualties in the personnel of the
firefighting forces."
Despite these deficiencies, losses from fire were relatively small during
the incident, the result of prompt shutoff of gas and electrical services,
according to the NFPA report. It may have also been due in part to sheer
luck. The two largest fires, for instance, occurred in schools, but since
the quake struck at about 6 p.m., the buildings were empty.
Other deficiencies, such as the poor construction methods, proved
more detrimental. About 20,000 homes and 2,000 other structures
suffered damage ranging from cracked plaster to complete destruction,
according to the Underwriters report. Schools in particular suffered
extensive structural damage, prompting the California Legislature a
month later to pass the Field Act, the first in a series of laws to mandate
earthquake-resistant construction for schools throughout the state,
from elementary schools to community colleges. The Field Act became
the most substantial part of the earthquake's legacy. "It has saved our
children's lives, and it saves the state a lot of money," a seismologist
from Pasadena told the Los Angeles Times in 2008 for an article marking the quake's 75th anniversary.
Eighty-five years later, the Long Beach temblor remains Southern California's deadliest earthquake.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs
that document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers and to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire
Record Department, the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information and compiling statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in "Looking
Back" are drawn from this collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information, visit nfpa.org/library.

GETT Y IMAGES

Looking Back

http://www.nfpa.org/library

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - March/April 2018