SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – An investigation is underway into a three-alarm fire that displaced more than a dozen people and damaged two businesses in San Francisco on Tuesday.
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More than 100 firefighters with the San Francisco Fire Department responded to help contain a three-story, nine-unit apartment building at the corner of Divisadero and McAllister streets on Tuesday afternoon.
Fire officials are crediting rapid response for preventing the blaze from inflicting more damage to San Francisco's North of the Panhandle neighborhood.
Thirteen residents were displaced, and one was transported to a nearby hospital with smoke inhalation, according to officials, while two businesses were damaged.
"I can't emphasize this enough: If we weren't able to get here as fast as we got here, and put as many firefighters as we have on scene, which is over 100, we would've lost, potentially, an entire city block by now," San Francisco Fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter told KCBS Radio's Holly Quan during an interview on Tuesday afternoon. "But again, we've been able to contain this fire to one building, a three-story, multi-residential building, that houses 13 tenants with nine units inside."
Both the resident and the two firefighters who sustained minor injuries were expected to make full recoveries.
Alva Kaple owns Kava Lounge SF, a café that sits directly below the fire-ruined apartments. To calm his nerves after the blaze, Kaple told KCBS Radio he drank Kava and participated in a ceremony.
"To the phoenix," he said. "To rise from the ashes."
Kaple was dealt an unexpected hand on Tuesday, as his business suffered substantial water and smoke damage, but he held a positive outlook.
"The universe always has a plan. Everything's here to help you," he said. Kava Lounge SF will need extensive fire restoration to get back on its feet.
The fire department's public information officer first tweeted about the apartment fire at 12:10 p.m., labeling it a one-alarm fire. Within an hour, the fire had grown to three alarms and had produced a lot of smoke.
Although the department told residents to avoid the area, Baxter said fire officials had to keep onlookers away from the building as it burned. He said a piece of the roof fell of on the sidewalk not far from where many had previously gathered.
Firefighters encountered some obstacles within the building it as they tried to reach and evacuate residents, and some personnel feared those obstacles were combustible and could've contributed to the fire.
"We've been confronted with a lot of challenges on this fire," Baxter said in an interview with Quan. "We've had some exitways that were extremely difficult to get into due to blocking, our fire prevention's going to be looking into that. ... We've actually had issues rescuing the individual that we're talking about because of similar types of obstructions that we saw and barriers within this building."
Baxter said that fire investigators are already on the scene, but the bulk of their probe won't begin in earnest until the blaze is fully extinguished.
Within the hour that the apartment fire was contained, a separate one-alarm blaze ignited on a pier at San Francisco's Aquatic Park.
One building, identified as a historical abandoned structure on a non-use pier between Pier 4 and the Mui-pier, collapsed amid the flames. The fire was contained shortly after it began. It is now under investigation. According to San Francisco fire officials, there were no injuries.
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