San Francisco FFs Rescue Many from Apartment Building Fire

June 19, 2021
Firefighters were called to a multi-story building in the Tenderloin District where they rescued 20 people and multiple pets during a stubborn fire.

Jun. 19—Fifteen people were injured and five dozen displaced by a roaring, smoky early morning apartment house fire in a Tenderloin apartment building on Saturday.

Firefighthers took about 90 minutes to contain the blaze at the six-story Sierra Madre apartment building, which broke out around 6:30 a.m.

Flames and dark smoke streamed from the roof of the building in the 400 block of Leavenworth Street.

Firefighters led people and pets from the smoky building. Some descended on a tall ladder raised against the side of the apartment house.

Fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter said that 15 injured people were being treated and assisted in an emergency Fire Department bus. They were in stable condition. Twenty people were rescued by firefighters.

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Approximately 60 displaced residents were being helped to find shelter by the Red Cross.

By 8:15 a.m., the one-alarm fire was contained within the building and has not spread, Baxter said. Its cause was not immediately known.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @SteveRubeSF

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