A white BMW somehow caught fire and was consumed in flames shortly before 8:30 Friday morning, and while the fire was significant, there are reportedly no injuries nor was there damage to other vehicles or structures.
It was an alarming Friday morning at 24th and Hampshire streets in the Mission District, near Brava Theater, as Mission Local reports a car burst into flames on 24th Street. Mission Local has a couple of videos of the incident, and footage posted to the Citizen app gives us some insights into what happened, though there fortunately were no reported injuries.
The car was reportedly a white BMW, and this video from just before 8:30 a.m. Friday shows flames engulfing the front seats and windshield of the car.
A subsequent video shows the flames getting much larger and taking up the whole interior of the vehicle, as an ambulance arrives on the scene.
And in the words of someone in a video from the Citizen app, “I see this car blown up on the corner.”
Another voice in the video has (unconfirmed) additional details. “Luckily, the girls, they made it out,” the person says. “It was her dad’s car. I don’t know if she knew what happened. She smelled the smell of fire coming from inside the car. They pulled over, and she ran inside to get a gallon of water, and came back out and just started dumping the water on the fire to try to stop it. And I guess it blew up.”
A white BMW caught on fire this morning at 24th and Hampshire streets, sending smoke high into the air.
— Mission Local (@MLNow) December 1, 2023
Video showed the car quickly consumed by flames as it sat on the corner. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear. https://t.co/ZmxywOYs4N
This version of accounts is backed up by Mission Local’s conversation with a shopkeeper named Sam, who said that two women rushed into his store urgently asking for water. “They said, ‘hurry up, ‘hurry up,'” according to Sam. “At first I thought she was rude, and later I understood — she was rushing.”
ATTN: IB 33 & IB/OB 48 buses rerouting around area of 24th btwn Potrero & Hampshire due to fire department activity.
— SFMTA (@SFMTA_Muni) December 1, 2023
➡️33 via 25th-Bryant-22nd-Potrero to reg. route
➡️IB 48 via Bryant-22nd-Potrero-23rd to reg. route
➡️OB 48 via Potrero-25th-Bryant-24th to reg. route
(1/)
There were some Muni reroutes that the SFMTA attributed to “fire department activity.” There were no reported injuries, and the cause of the fire is not yet known.
Per Mission Local, first responders were on the scene within about 20 minutes, and the remains of the burnt car were towed away by 9:45 a.m. Friday morning.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Related: Vehicle Fire Causes BackWestbound Bay Bridge [SFist]
Image via Citizen app
