SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Fire Department responded to a fire at one of the high-rise apartment buildings near San Francisco State University that had displaced two residents at approximately 7:00 p.m. on Friday, December 16.
According to reports, the 12-story building located on Cambon Drive broke out into flames on the side facing 19th Avenue, in one of the residential rooms on the seventh floor. Matthew Milde took notice of the flames at about 7:30 p.m. while driving down Junipero Serra Boulevard toward 19th Avenue. He used his cell phone to record the incident.
SFSU students who live in the building shared with ABC 7 that they initially did not realize the severity of the incident until they began evacuating the building. “We have a lot of false alarms, but never actually the real thing,” said Espie Pitones.
Jonathan Baxter from the SFFD indicated firefighters extinguished the fire in approximately 15 minutes, but due to the high occupancy of the building, they called for a second alarm response.
Baxter indicated officials remained present at the scene until they were certain the flames would not extend past the seventh-story room. Firefighters proceeded to dispose of burned debris from the room. There were no reports of any injuries sustained.
Members of the Red Cross showed up to assist the two displaced residents, officials are still investigating the cause of the fire.