SF Inner Sunset fire damages apartments, local hardware store
SAN FRANCISCO - Fire investigators are trying to piece together how a three-alarm fire started in San Francisco's Sunset District Tuesday night. Fortunately, no one was injured, but a neighborhood fixture was badly damaged.
Flames from the three-alarm fire lit up the night sky in the area of Eight Avenue and Irving Street.
The San Francisco Fire Department says they received multiple 911 calls at about 8 p.m. Tuesday night about a fire at an apartment and hardware store; the fire growing to three alarms, drawing more than 100 firefighters to the scene.
"We were able to contain this fire an hour and a half after our initial dispatch to the incident with no injuries," said Capt. Jonathan Baxter from SFFD. "Seven individuals at this time confirmed as being displaced because of the incident."
Now that the cleanup is underway, residents of the apartment building were allowed back in to gather their belongings; and around the corner, the father and son owners of Progress Hardware worked to board up their business.
Randy Blair says the back of the store where they kept stock was heavily damaged.
San Francisco fire rips through Sunset hardware store, apartments
Firefighters contained a three-alarm multi-structure fire in San Francisco's Inner Sunset neighborhood Tuesday night. There are no injuries to report at this time.
"It's a lot of smoke, a lot of smoke damage," said Blair. "But, the back room is just gone. Gone."
Blair says the front windows are broken out; firefighters had to make it through the store to get to the back where the fire was most intense.
He says the fire was just a few feet away from the stains and other flammable liquids. Blair is estimating given the damage to the shop it could be a year to 18 months before they're ready to reopen.
"My father's owned the business for more than 20 years," said Blair. "…long-standing small neighborhood hardware store in the Inner Sunset. So, yeah, it's devastating, to say the least."
Greg Dewar lives in the area and is a neighborhood blogger. He says the hardware store is an Inner Sunset staple.
"I shop at Progress Hardware all the time, said Dewar. "In fact, I was there just last week having some keys made."
He also says a few years ago he lived in the apartment building that burned, and he says he wasn't surprised to hear about the fire.
"I mean, it's an older building with issues. Any old building in San Francisco is going to have issues," he said.
Fire investigators have wrapped up their initial on-scene investigation, and will now work to determine exactly how this fire started.