ABSTRACT
Earthquakes cause damage by a variety of damaging agents, including fault rupture, shaking, liquefaction, landslides, fires, release of hazardous materials, tsunami, etc. Shaking is present in all earthquakes, by definition, and is the predominant agent of damage in most earthquakes. Occasionally, however, building characteristics and density, meteorological conditions, and other factors can combine to create a situation in which fire following earthquake, or post-earthquake
conflagration,
is the predominant agent of damage. Large fires following an earthquake in an urban region are relatively rare phenomena, but have occasionally been of catastrophic proportions.
