Category: Disaster Conspiracies

• The "San Francisco Earthquake" (1906) Dynamite Plot

  This theory claimed that explosives used after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake were not primarily intended to stop the fire, but were used to destroy buildings in ways that benefited insurers, owners, speculators, or officials. The rumor grew from a real historical fact: authorities and troops did use dynamite to create firebreaks, and those efforts often worsened the destruction. Because insurance coverage treated fire and earthquake damage differently, the disaster created a lasting environment of suspicion around motive, classification, and profit.