At least 24 people were injured in a “suspicious” residential hotel fire in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. (Photo: California Beat)
Two dozen people were injured and more than 100 were displaced when a trash compactor exploded and started a hotel fire in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district Tuesday night.
• A trash compactor exploded and started a fire on the bottom floor of a six-story low-income residential hotel where many disabled people live.
• Flames and smoke shot up through the garbage chute, spreading to every floor in the building. The fire got so hot that the building’s roof caved in onto the top floor.
• Firefighters had to rescue many of the residents. Two dozen people suffered smoke inhalation injuries. Most were treated at the scene, but four were hospitalized.
• More than 100 residents were displaced.
Dispatchers said the fire near Taylor and Eddy streets was first reported at 8:53 p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The second alarm was added at 9:15 p.m. and the third alarm was added at 9:34 p.m., the Chronicle reported.
The fire started on the first floor of the six-story Franciscan Towers residential hotel, where a trash compactor exploded, Deputy Fire Chief Pat Gardner said. It quickly shot up through the garbage chute, spreading smoke and flames throughout the building. When it reached the top of the hotel the blaze was so hot that the roof of the building collapsed into the sixth floor.
Many disabled people live at the hotel, which is set aside as low-income housing. Some residents were able to escape on their ow, while others had to be rescued by firefighters. A clerk who was on duty at a grocery store across the street said smoke was billowing out of the building as firefighters in five trucks evacuated people though emergency exits. Flames were coming out of the top of the building.
“We had to grab a couple of towels and put them over our face so we could come down the stairwell and get out,” resident Cordell Lynch told ABC News as he stood on the sidewalk waiting for his neighbors to be rescued. “There’s a lot of people in there, elderly people, people in wheelchairs. It’s hard to get out of there.”
Resident Frank Sparkman said he could see the smoke coming “up, up, up” through the chute. Flames engulfed the halls.
“The whole hallway was like a towering inferno in there” Sparkman. “It was just unbearable.
Most of the people who were injured were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, but four were taken to a hospital. It wasn’t known whether those four suffered burn injuries. Officials said no life-threatening injuries were reported.
More than 100 residents were displaced by the fire. Some of them were in a Red Cross evacuation center directly across the street; others went to buildings owned by the non-profit organization that owns and operates the Franciscan Towers.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze by about 10:15 p.m., but there were flare-ups until early Wednesday morning. The cause of the fire is still under investigation but officials do not suspect arson.
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