The San Francisco Fire Department dispatched a crew at approximately 1:40 p.m. today in response to a call for a smoking vehicle inside of a parking garage at 670 Valencia Street.
Upon arriving fire fighters found a black, plastic trash bag with a pile of towels that had caught fire, causing a nauseating stench and smoke throughout the ground floor garage. There were no injuries and the call was cancelled, while the bag of towels was disposed of on the street outside of the building. Known as Alcantara Court, 670 Valencia is a senior housing community.
“We don’t know how exactly happened, but the fire fighters said it was a mixture of chemicals on the towels may have caught fire — they said it was spontaneous combustion,” said the building’s utility worker. “We just noticed that the bag was smoking from inside of the car.”
A woman who claimed to be the building manager said that the car belonged to her, and that there was “just laundry” inside of the bag. She refused to comment further.
Mindy Talmadge, a spokesperson with the fire department, confirmed that the call had been cancelled, and there was no evidence of arson.