"My entire business career of 46 1/2 years started with the Wells-Fargo Nevada National Bank and ended with the Wells Fargo Bank. On the first day of the Earthquake, the Fire Department told P. L. Lipman, who managed the Wells Fargo Bank for the Hellmans, that the fire in the area of the bank at Pine and Montgomery streets was out of control, and that the Bank Building would soon be destroyed. The bank’s records were locked in the vaults and a temporary bank was opened that afternoon in the home of Director Heller, a son-in-law of [I.W.] Hellman, on Jackson Street west of Van Ness, where banking functions were continuously carried on until permanent quarters could be occupied. During my early years in the bank, about 30 percent of the signature cards were charred around the edges from the vault heat. San Francisco was the beneficiary of a Baltimore business district fire of 1902. Merchants, in their eagerness to get back into business, opened their vaults before they had a chance to cool. When they did so, the contents burst into flames. Our bank, with Baltimore in mind, waited three weeks before opening its vaults. John J. Conlon June 23, 1982" Source: http://www.sfmuseum.net/1906/ew10.html