"Terrible Explosion and Loss of Life in San Francisco" roared the headline in the Placer Herald describing what happened 144 years ago today after stored nitroglycerin boxes at the Wells Fargo and Co. office exploded on California Street, causing widespread destruction.

The harrowing report dated April 21, 1866 reads:

On Monday, 16th inst., in San Francisco, at fifteen minutes past one o'clock, P.M., an explosion took place in the storeroom back of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s building, in G.W. Bell's assay office, adjoining California Street, which demolished everything with a circuit of 40 or 50 feet, including the whole interior of Bell's assay building, the storeroom and west portion of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s building, the back portion of the Union Club Rooms, and other apartments in the vicinity.

The explosion was powerful as to shake the earth like an earthquake for a circuit of a quarter of a mile. Every window in California Street, between Montgomery and Kearney, was demolished, and panes of glass were shattered as far as Third Street, a distance of half a mile. For some time after the explosion it was impossible to tell the cause of the calamity. Some asserting that it was a barrel of acid in the Assay Office; others said it was a steam boiler in the rear of the office; and others, that it was some kind of explosive material stored in the yard of Wells, Fargo & Co

The article details the carnage in graphic, sensational detail: