SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San
Francisco firefighters prevented a five-alarm fire from spreading from a
condominium construction site to nearby buildings on Tuesday.
The fast-moving
blaze, which sent an enormous plume of black smoke into the sky, began
around 5 p.m. in the city's Mission Bay neighborhood, a onetime
industrial area that lies along the San Francisco Bay and is home to a
University of California, San Francisco campus.
Fire
Capt. Matthew McNaughton said that the roof of a UCSF research building,
a block away from the construction site, briefly caught fire.
San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told the Chronicle that that the fire was the city's largest in several years.
The
burning building was part of a residential development project with 172
units, according to BRE Properties, the building's owner.
Fire-suppression systems had not yet been installed in the building,
making the battle more difficult, fire officials said.
One of the six-story
structure's walls collapsed about an hour after the fire began, and the
rest of the building was not expected to remain standing, officials
said.
The cause of the blaze
wasn't immediately clear. Hayes-White said most of the construction
workers finished work for the day around 4 p.m. But McNaughton said
several workers were still at the site when firefighters arrived.
The
fire was expected to burn into the night, and firefighters will likely
be working in the area until daybreak, officials said.
"Thanks
to the leadership and determined action of our Fire Department, the
very real potential of severe damage to other homes, businesses, and
structures in the neighborhood was avoided," Mayor Ed Lee said in a
statement Tuesday night.
One firefighter suffered second-degree burns to the face, authorities said.
The site is several blocks from AT&T Park, the stadium where the San Francisco Giants play.
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