A three-alarm fire spread through apartment buildings and multiple parked cars early Saturday morning on Wiese Street, an alley between 15th and 16th streets, leaving two people with minor injuries and displacing at least 10, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.
The department said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Firefighters responded just before 2 a.m. to the scene, which was just a block away from a suspected arson the night before at nearby St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. The church was not affected in Saturday’s fire.
Videos taken on scene show two parked cars engulfed in flames, and smoke billowing up to the three-story building behind them. Multiple fire engines, trucks and support vehicles were brought to the scene to extinguish the blaze, according to the department’s media release.
On Saturday afternoon, Will King, the partial owner of both buildings, was taking measurements of the charred garage to board up the building.
“I haven’t really fully processed it all yet,” King said. “But it’s not good.”
King said he wasn’t sure exactly how many residents were displaced from the two buildings. He believed the fire originated outside.
The fire department said that a Muni bus and representatives from the American Red Cross were made available for the displaced residents.
Stacy Barnes, 53, walked past the site of the fire and said that she was displaced in the nearby fire at Los Coyotes in February 2022.
After Red Cross moved her to a hotel, she was placed in a building owned by her original landlords. But she was unable to pay her $1,300 rent the next month, and was soon evicted.
“It was horrible,” she said. “The Red Cross did provide some support. But they’re not housing.”
Barnes moved into a “tiny home” project, and lived in a tent for a while. These days, she said, she stays wherever she can.
Alfonso, who lives in the building next door, said he was outside until 4 or 5 a.m. waiting for clearance to go back into his building. Throughout the ordeal, he thought it was his own building that was on fire.
“There was so much smoke,” said Ruben, a neighbor who walked over to survey the damage with Alfonso. Ruben had heard about the fire the night before at St. John’s. “That was scary, too. And then you see this happen. It’s very worrisome.”
This is a developing story and may be updated as more information becomes available.
Most Mission residents are not going to get upset that people are sleeping on the sidewalks, but we do draw the line at feces and fire.
Can Mission Local ask D9 candidates what they’d have government do to defend wooden structures in the Mission, especially housing, from being torched by arson or an encampment fire?
As far as the church goes, Christ’s will.
I wonder if the illegally parked cars visible in the photos made an difference in the outcome. Blocked doors and sidewalks can make evacuation difficult and can reduce SFFD access.