One person was displaced and another is being treated for smoke inhalation after a one-alarm fire struck a four-story apartment building at 1751 Market St. on Tuesday afternoon.
Fire officials responded to reports of a fire at the building, located at Valencia and Market streets, sometime around 1:35 p.m.
By 1:48 p.m., the fire was reported contained.
It is unclear how many people live in the 51-unit building, but all were evacuated after smoke filled the building according to Assistant Fire Chief Tom Siragusa.
Upon arrival, firefighters saw smoke coming out what appeared to be the third story of the building, and later discovered that the smoke had spread throughout. The displaced resident lived in the room where the fire presumably started, according to Siragusa.
One ground floor retail space suffered damage from the activated sprinklers, and water dripped from its ceiling.
“The good thing about sprinklers is [they] put the fire out – the bad thing is they do a lot of water damage,”said Siragusa.
An employee of the dampened business, Ketama, managed to find humor in the circumstances: “I thought I’d get away from rain today and then it started raining inside,” said Spencer DeVine.
Residents who were evacuated from the building reported a foul odor throughout. “It smelled really bad,” said one man. “I still have it in my nose.”
While Valencia and Market streets were temporarily blocked off near the intersection, traffic has since resumed.
#022117WF1 1751 MARKET LARGE CORNER BLDG Structure fire w/one adult being eval for smoke inhalation. FIRE CONTAINED unk. Displaced 156 Hrs pic.twitter.com/caToYTEOKu
— San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) February 21, 2017
Fire will be under investigation AVOID AREA due to fire apparatus https://t.co/GWMY1XYBui
— San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) February 21, 2017
