Sean Street marks the centenary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire by relating the story of the disaster through eyewitness accounts - such as those written by the 30 year old businessman Charles Kendrick, the opera singer Enrico Caruso, the novelist Jack London and his wife Charmian - as well as through the recollections of survivors. Herbert Hamrol, who was three years of age at the time, has one clear memory of the earthquake and other stories that were passed on through the family. Anita Caruso (nee Oldelehr), who was born in 1904, also handed stories of April 1906 down to family members, like her great-niece Kris Wiley.

Sadly, since Sean interviewed Anita in early February, she has died, aged 102. We'd like to dedicate the broadcast to Anita's memory.

Others taking part are Gladys Hansen, who has spent a lifetime researching the real death toll, James Dalessandro, author of '1906, A Novel', the San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte, historian Stephen Becker, photographer Philip Adam and Kathryn Kendrick MacNeil, who reads her father's account and recalls her own experience of the 1989 earthquake.

"a poignant picture of an urban disaster that has real resonance"

Jane Anderson, Radio Times