San Francisco Firefighter Injured in Five-Alarmer

SAN FRANCISCO -- Firefighters have contained a wind-whipped five-alarm fire that ripped through four buildings in the city's Western Addition on Thursday.

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said the fire was contained by 2:26 p.m., about two hours after it started in the rear of a three-flat unit at 1502 Golden Gate Ave.

Hayes-White said the fire started inside the wood-frame Victorian and quickly spread to the roof. From there, the blaze spread to a neighboring 25-unit building at 1015 Pierce St., and then to two other buildings as it raged out of control. Both resident buildings were gutted.

The cause is unknown. An arson team will begin investigating the cause Thursday night, Hayes-White said, adding that it is too soon to say whether the fire was suspicious.

Two people -- a firefighter and a resident -- were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, the chief said. The resident was treated for smoke inhalation, and the firefighter received a minor burn on the back of his neck.

At its peak, more than 120 firefighters were called in to battle the flames as they ripped through the residential neighborhood near Alamo Square.

Most residents had already evacuated from the buildings by the time firefighters arrived, the chief said, and no one is missing. No fatalities have been reported.

The timing of the fire was fortunate, Hayes-White said at a media briefing: Most residents were either at work or out Christmas shopping when the fire broke out.

The total number of displaced and specific details about the other affected buildings weren't immediately available, but Mayor Ed Lee said the city will do everything it can to help the impacted residents.

"We're going to definitely help them in any way we can," he said.

A Red Cross shelter has been set up at a missionary temple at 1455 Golden Gate Ave., and about 20 people are there. More are expected to arrive later.

A resident of 1502 Golden Gate Ave., Alvara Tijero, 30, said his roommate called him at work to alert him to the fire. The roommate heard popping noises coming from the back of the building, Tijero said, and jumped up and ran out of the flat. The stairs were shaking as he ran down them, Tijero said the roommate told him.

Richard Lenhart, the manager of the building at 1015 Pierce, said a resident alerted him to the fire by calling his apartment from a downstairs call box. Lenhart, 53, called 911, pulled on his pants -- backward -- grabbed his cat, Maya, and headed for the exit, banging on residents' doors as he went.

"I tried to grab other things," he said, "but I said to myself, 'This is how people die.'" Lenhart spoke to reporters in the street, wearing a pair of Crocs shoes he said had been given to him by another resident. He said everyone from the building is fine, but five cats are unaccounted for.

Residents can call the city's animal shelter at 415-554-9400 for details on missing animals.

A monetary estimate of the damages and other specifics were not immediately available, and several media reported that an elderly care facility along the 1400 block of McAllister was being evacuated because of smoke from the blaze.

Valerie Davison, who lives on the other side of the street from the blaze, said smoke was "coming out of the windows, and there's a lot of windows over there."

Pierce Street is shut down between McAllister and Turk streets, and Golden Gate Avenue is closed between Scott and Steiner streets.

Check back for updates.

Wire services contributed to this report.