Fire Displaces Mission District Residents

On Wednesday January 28th approximately 7pm a fire was reported at the building on the North West corner of 22nd and Mission streets in San Francisco. The fire went from a one alarm to a four alarm in less than a half hour. When firefighters arrived on scene they noticed people stuck on a fire escape on the Mission Street side and the 22nd street side. I have attached a photo of the fire escape on the Mission street side that is obstructed by a business below.
Those people were rescued by the fire department. When firefighters arrived they had discovered a person in respiratory failure on the 3rd floor. Firefighters took the person out of the building, but they could not be revived. Five people were injured, including a firefighter, with “mild to moderate injuries.”
Firefighters took an offensive position until the fire was out of control, they were then ordered out. After high pressure water streams were set-up firefighters drenched the building. The defensive battle took all night long, but most of the equipment had left the scene.
At a 9am press conference Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said the fire was not completely out. She did not have any estimates on how much water was used to put the fire out, but at 9am this morning there was 4 feet of water in the basement. During the press conference Chief Hayes-White said there were reports from the rescued tenants they did not hear any audible fire alarms, and there were no warnings. Tenants also said several fire escapes were obstructed, and they felt trapped.

There have been several other fires in the Mission neighborhood that have displaced residents, and businesses. The new multi-million dollar condo building called Vida is next door to the building, but it does not appear to have suffered any major damage. It is common knowledge that many residents in San Francisco are being displaced by landlords at alarming levels, while the so-called rich techies move in and pay higher rents.

The air was not monitored for pollutants, but I found it hard to deal with the acrid smoke.