A house on 26th Street between Castro and Diamond streets in Noe Valley caught fire early Monday morning, and while it's unclear if there were any human casualties, firefighters found two dead dogs.

The fire broke out around 5:27 am Monday, as KPIX reports, and was initially reported as a one-alarm fire. A house that was set back from the street and built behind another house was "fully engulfed," according to the San Francisco Fire Department. And at least one occupant in the house, who was uninjured, was apparently living in "hoarder conditions."

Video from the scene posted by the SFFD shows a deck area in front of the house filled with trash and various debris.

The SFFD initially tweeted that three residents were displaced and were all okay. A fourth person who was said to be missing was a friend who was not present at the time of the fire.

But KPIX reported that the home's occupant claimed he could not find his roommate. And the cluttered conditions were making the search difficult for firefighters.

Two deceased dogs found in the home were removed by Animal Care & Control.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A six-year-old child was initially reported dead in a huge Thursday morning fire near San Leandro that sent five people to the hospital.

The fire was first reported around 5:25 am Thursday on the 2000 block of Altamont Road in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, Hillcrest Knolls, just outside San Leandro.

As the East Bay Times reports, Alameda County Fire spokesperson Cheryl Hurd initially announced that one of two six-year-old twins who lived in the house was missing and presumed dead in the fire, however this had not been confirmed when the announcement was made.

Hurd told reporters that five people living in the home had been taken to the hospital with injuries, one of them in life-threatening condition.

Alameda County Fire Chief William McDonald reportedly said that family members had told firefighters that one of the twins was still inside the house, but that child's body had not been recovered as of 9:30 am.

"Very difficult fire, severe injuries to the occupants that were in the fire and a lot of damage to the house making it very difficult to determine the actual number of folks that were in the house and who's been accounted for," McDonald said, per NBC Bay Area.

No cause of the fire has been given, and it is under investigation.

This is a developing story.

Fires in San Francisco buildings hit a ten-year high in 2022, with several big ones striking this year too, as fire officials point out that residential, commercial, and encampment fires are all happening more frequently.

Back 2015, when the Mission District was seeing a number of residential fires that happened to coincide with a glut of pricey condos being proposed or built, there was a popular conspiracy theory that landlords were torching their own buildings on purpose in order to drive out rent-controlled tenants and build something shiner and more lucrative. Though according to SF Fire Department data, 2012 and 2013 were much worse years for the frequency of fires in San Francisco, and no landlord arson was ever proven.

That same fire department data shows that 2022 was the worst year for SF fires in ten years, according to a new Chronicle report. That report shows 319 commercial and residential fires in SF last year, the worst year since 2013 (357 fires) and 2012 (366 fires).

“I’ll be honest with you, 2022 was a bad year,” SF Fire Marshal Ken Cofflin told an SF Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee at a meeting last week.

There is a tendency to blame encampment fires for the uptick, and in some cases encampments were the cause. A tent fire spread to a building at 15th and Church streets last year (also charring an Amos Goldbaum mural). An early August fire in Hayes Valley has some blaming a nearby encampment, though the cause of that fire remains under investigation.  

Encampment fires are not included in the overall fire data, which only represents residential and commercial building fires. But the fire department says encampment fires also increased in 2022, with 981 last year, compared to 757 in 2020.

Supervisor Dean Preston, in whose district that recent Hayes Valley fire occurred, is alarmed at how few resources are available to fire victims, who are mostly just referred to Red Cross volunteers.

“Our office is picking up the slack,” he told the Chronicle. “I have staff that will spend 20 hours the week of a fire just managing and helping to connect people to resources and pushing different departments to talk to each other. That’s really totally unfair to fire victims.”

But those are reactive measures, not proactive measures, to reverse the fire trend. Fire officials also blame a rise in highly inflammable, synthetic materials being used in construction, and older buildings that are grandfathered in out of 2008 sprinkler requirement legislation. To that end, Supervisor Connie Chan is considering proposing legislation to make sprinklers mandatory for all buildings within five years, and requiring sprinklers in new alternative dwelling units (ADUs).

Related: Three-Alarm Apartment Fire Injures Three, Displaces 13 at McAllister and Divisadero [SFist]

Image via SF Fire Department

A series of suspicious fires have broken out along Interstate 580 in the past few days, with another blaze dubbed the "Grant Fire" igniting early Saturday morning.

California Highway Patrol confirmed that multiple grass fires were deliberately set on the right shoulder across an eight-mile stretch of I-580 near the Altamont Pass in eastern Alameda County, starting around 6:15 a.m. Saturday, according to KRON4.

Firefighting crew are actively working to contain the Grant Fire, which started as a 25-acre fire along the freeway near Grant Line Road, between the I-580 and 205 split near Tracy, according to Cal Fire. The fire grew to approximately 75 acres and was 85% contained around 11 a.m., according to Cal Fire’s most recent update.

Expect traffic delays, as well, because the number four lane for I-580 nearby is closed at this time.

Authorities are reportedly investigating it as possible arson incident. Witnesses described a person of interest wearing a blue shirt and black pants, seen near one of the fires on the Portola Avenue under-crossing, driving a newer-model white truck, as KRON reported.

Another fire late Friday night also added to the challenges, according to KPIX. That fire, called the Flynn fire, sparked along Interstate 580 near Flynn Road, reaching a sprawling 41 acres before being fully contained by the Alameda County Fire Department around midnight.

Authorities are urging anyone with relevant information about the fires or the individual linked to the white truck to contact the California Highway Patrol at 707-641-8300.

Feature image of the Grant Fire via CHP Dublin.

An overnight blaze in the Mission Terrace neighborhood has claimed the life of a father and daughter, as well as the family dog.

As KPIX reports, the one-alarm fire was reported at 2:07 a.m. Wednesday at 66 Delano Avenue, and was ultimately contained by 3:10 a.m.

According to a neighbor who spoke with the station, a father and daughter resided in the home, and the daughter was attending law school at USF. Neighbors also said that the family had lived in the home for at least 20 years, and the mother died from breast cancer not long ago.

A dog also perished in the blaze, according to SFFD spokesperson Lt. Jonathan Baxter. NBC Bay Area reports that the woman who died was 23 years old.

ABC 7 spoke with another neighbor who said he and his son were awakened by their dog barking because of the flames, and they tried fighting the fire with a garden hose before the SFFD arrived on the scene. The neighbor also describes hearing the woman inside the house screaming "Dad! Dad!"

The neighbor, Joel Macdonald, tells ABC 7, "I was screaming, 'Camilla come out!’ She never came out." Macdonald said that the victim grew up with his son.

Update: The Examiner is reporting that the father has since died from his injuries and the story above has been updated to reflect that. The fire victims have been identified as 23-year-old Camila Ron Ruiz and 66-year-old Ricardo Ron.

A house fire in the Miraloma Park neighborhood sent smoke up over the skies of San Francisco Monday afternoon.

Bay City News reports via the SFFD that the fire started sometime just before 1:30 p.m., and CBS SF has an image of the scene via the Citizen app.

The fire, on the 400 block of Melrose Avenue, reportedly reached two alarms, and it's unclear if it spread to more than one structure. Melrose Avenue runs between Miraloma and Westwood Highlands, just above Monterey Boulevard, and just south of Mount Davidson.

Others have been posting photos and video on social media.

A video that puts in perspective the swiftness and vastness of the devastation that first responders encountered in the early hours of the wine country wildfires one week ago is this one, from Engine 6 of the Berkeley Fire Department. Firemen from this crew, as they explain in overlaid titles on the 11-minute video above, had no idea what they were being called to help with in Santa Rosa, other than it was being called the Tubbs Fire.

As Berkeleyside reports, Engine 6 was dispatched around 5 a.m. on Monday, October 9, and they joined a convoy of other engines headed north on 101 from San Francisco to help with a blaze, the scale of which none of them yet knew. As the video shows, they arrived in Santa Rosa to scenes out of a war zone that they were just beginning to comprehend, one street at a time, driving into the Coffey Park neighborhood. Small scattered fires burned across wide expanses that were dotted with lone chimneys, and the staging area they had been told to go to when they left an hour earlier, a K-Mart parking lot, was now next to a burning 100,000-square-foot store that could not be saved.

The crew moves on, seeking someplace they could still be of help, and a safe place to stage from. They ended up in a neighborhood that was partly on fire where flames were jumping from house to house, and managed to contain it and save approximately 30 homes from burning, they think. They moved on and continued fighting back flames for the next day and a half without sleep, returning to Berkeley Tuesday night.

"We don’t typically video our responses," firefighter Mike Shuken tells Berkeleyside, "but this was so big and unprecedented that we did this time — of course when we felt it wouldn’t slow us or interfere with our operations."

All related coverage of the North Bay wildfires on SFist.

#RedwoodComplex [update] north of Ukiah in the Redwood Valley (Mendocino County) is 34,000 acres & 10% contained. https://t.co/2uhzbbqqsU pic.twitter.com/wR7l6yJt1Q

— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) October 13, 2017

Of the 34,000 acres burning in Northern California's Mendocino Lake Complex, only 10% of the fire is considered "contained," Cal Fire said in its most recent update on the area Friday morning. An estimated 250 homes have been destroyed in the area, officials say.

Related: Northern CA Wildfire Death Count Hits 31; Official Count Of Santa Rosa Homes Burned Rises To 2,834

The fires, presently referred to by officials as the Redwood and Potter Fires, are burning in the area "North of Hwy 20, west of Mendocino National Forest, south of Black Bart," Cal Fire says.

At least eight of the 31 people that have so far been confirmed dead in the Northern California wildfires were victims of those blazes, CBS 5 reports. That number is expected to grow as crews continue the search for victims in the rubble. As with all the fires burning in this massive swarm of blazes, firefighters tilting at the Redwood/Potter fires are "battling shifting winds as they fought to gain control of the flames."

And though ten percent seems like a small number, it's progress — Thursday afternoon, Cal Fire said via a statement that only five percent of the Redwood and Potter Fires had been contained, making this 5 percent gain something to appreciate.

As of Friday, Cal Fire says, "Damage Inspection Teams have completed damage inspections for the Sulphur Incident and are continuing to survey for damaged and destroyed structures throughout the Redwood Fire."

As with all the fires burning up north, the Redwood and Potter Fires continue "to burn in multiple directions threatening numerous communities and infrastructure," Cal Fire says. So far, 8000 residents have been evacuated in the area.

In one of their many excellent human-focused reports from the fires, Chron reporters Trisha Thadani and John King say that McCarty’s Bar, a bar located in Redwood Valley, has turned into an "informal evacuation center for people displaced by the Mendocino County fires."

“It’s bringing people together through tragedy,” said bartender Crystal Maples, who opened the doors at 2:30 a.m. Monday after sprinting away from the flames that had erupted in Potter Valley.

The scene in this locally owned establishment — where people are sleeping on air mattresses on the dance floor and in RVs parked outside — captures how a close-knit piece of Mendocino has persevered in the face of a fire that after four days refuses to fade.

The community has been having regular meetings at Ukiah High School, with the next one scheduled for today at 6:30, Cal Fire says. Thursday's meeting was standing room only, the Chron reports, with over 200 folks impacted by the Redwood, Potter, and Sulfur Fires (the latter a much smaller fire "off Hwy 20 and Sulphur Bank Road, Clearlake Oaks" Cal Fire says, that has burned 2500 acres and is 55 percent contained as of Friday morning) in attendance.

When county Sheriff Tom Allman asked if the audience had any questions, many hands shot up: When can we go back home? When will the extent of the evacuation area be reduced?

“I hear you loud and clear,” Allman said. But “what we don’t want to do is put people back in and then have to evacuate them again.”

While the high school meetings are useful for dissemination of important information, McCarty’s appears to be where it's at in Mendocino, where even "After closing time, Maples and a dozen or more fire evacuees would head to the dance floor, where several air mattresses, blankets and pillows were ready."

“People are wanting to stay close to home,” owner Karen McCarty tells the Chron. “At a bar, you can get camaraderie that you don’t get at Ukiah High School.”

And for now, things might be looking up: Cal Fire said Friday morning that "Firefighters utilized favorable weather conditions to their advantage today, across both fires, towards achieving containment and providing structure defense."

But don't relax yet. The Chron reports that "a forecast of heavy winds for the weekend meant that the fire could double back over places that have already been hit hard — like Redwood Valley." Cal Fire also emphasized the struggles they face, saying Friday that "steep inaccessible terrain coupled with critical fuel moistures and northwest winds will provide challenges for crews working on the fire. We ask the public to exercise caution and remember to be prepared to evacuate when asked."

Read all SFist coverage of the North Bay wildfires here

Richmond Bridge eastbound is closed due to big rig collision and fire. No ETO. Use alt rout e pic.twitter.com/d2ElZgVL5A

— CHP Marin (@CHPMarin) September 27, 2016

Eastbound traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge came to a complete halt this morning following a tractor-trailer fire that broke out mid-span on the 5.5-mile bridge. ABC 7 reports that according to CHP officials on the scene, the fire was sparked by a collision between the big rig and another vehicle.

While at present there are no reported injuries and the fire has been extinguished, the road remains closed as officials work to clear the rubble.

Smoke, meanwhile, can be seen from some distance.

The Chronicle reports that this all went down around 8:00 a.m., and while the fire is out, The San Raphael Fire Department informs us that there is at present no estimated time for when the eastbound lanes will reopen.

In other words, it's probably best to avoid the entire area if possible.

Wildfires are frightening enough as is the damage to property, wildlife, and risk to human life they pose. And yet, as CBS 5 reports, they have the potential to be even more terrifying when an "ash devil" develops — as happened this week near Yreka, California.

The Grade Fire, where the above picture was snapped, is one of several wildfires currently menacing the state. To our south, the Soberanes Fire near Big Sur started on July 22 and has burned over 90,000 acres. Meanwhile, San Luis Obispo County's Chimney Fire has burned over 45,000 acres and continues to threaten Hearst Castle.

Near Yreka, the Grade Fire has reportedly burned 710 acres and is 65 percent contained. It threatens 150 structures, and has already burned four homes. It has also given birth to at least one ash devil.

"Firewhirls and ash devils are not uncommon in wildfires on unstable days," the US National Weather Service of Medford Oregon explains on its Facebook page. "Strong updrafts from the heat of the fire (or even just the blackened ground) are able to turn the horizontal vorticity (spin) into the vertical and give rise to these spinning columns of air. These are signs of vertical wind shear and extreme instability, and they are very dangerous to firefighters."

The cause of the Grade Fire remains unknown.

Related: Wildfire Threatens Hearst Castle, Forces Closure Of Tourist Attraction

A deceased man was pulled from the wreckage of an Oakland liquor store last night following reports that he had barricaded himself inside and set it ablaze. CBS 5 reports that the Oakland Fire Department received word Tuesday evening that a belligerent man was inside Seminary Market & Liquors on Seminary Avenue and working to set it on fire, and when they arrived on scene the building was already engulfed in flames.

NBC Bay Area reports that a 911 caller said the man was armed, and according to the East Bay Times he actually got into an altercation with store patrons. The paper informs us that he allegedly had a knife and threw liquor bottles at customers — forcing store employees to flee and call police.

Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Nick Luby told the Times that the man most likely made his way into the store's back office, and it was there that he allegedly lit the fire. It took firefighters roughly 90 minutes to get everything under control, and the man's body was later discovered in the freezer section. He is believed to have died from smoke inhalation.

The suspected arsonist's name has yet to be released pending notification of his family, and at this time there is no known motive. Seminary Market & Liquors is completely destroyed.

Related: Oakland Man Arrested For Double Shooting And Arson

Traffic is backed up on 880 in the East Bay this afternoon, as a big-rig fire has forced the shutdown of the interstate near an Emeryville off-ramp. A tipster writes in that "All lanes of 880 [are] blocked on the ramp just before the merger, but 580/80 east bound lanes are clear."

Emergency crews are reportedly on the scene, and according to the Chronicle reports of the fire started coming in around 1:00 p.m.

Drivers are tweeting out photos of the burning truck and accompanying smoke, and Caltrans confirms that northbound I-880 to eastbound I-80 are closed as a result of the blaze.

Update: As of 5:00 p.m., the lane was still closed as crews worked to clean up spilled fuel.

161701875, WF, WORKING FIRE, 4TH ALARM, 3312 MISSION ST, SF, pic.twitter.com/OGpSEDeyOk

— SF Firefighters 798 (@SFFFLocal798) June 18, 2016

After a devastating fire at Mission and 29th Streets forced out 58 people this month, CBS 5 puts the number of Missionites displaced by such disasters at 200. While officials link the string of fires in the Mission District to crowded housing and old buildings, Supervisor Campos has darker suspicions about the series of disasters. On Tuesday, he gave utterance to those at a Board of Supervisor's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee meeting.

"To me, this fire is just too much," Campos tells the station. “For the community, we have had enough.” Campos also turned to the pages of the Examiner recently to express his theory:

We are at a point in this crisis where reasonable people now believe that arson is playing a part in the rash of fires that are destroying the homes of Mission and Bernal residents. Reasonable people see that fires in low-income buildings almost always result in large profits for building owners and landlords and are disturbed and afraid the uptick in fires is more then just a coincidence... As the elected representative of these neighborhoods, there is nothing I want more then to assure my constituents that arson is not a factor in these fires. Unfortunately, at this point, I can not say this with certainty.

In contrast to those statements, CBS 5 quotes officials like Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, who points instead to other factors, some related to the forces of gentrification in the sense that rising prices can lead to overcrowding and also building deterioration. But these causes aren't, as Campos suggests, direct or malicious agents.

“We are seeing six or seven people in these units, closets being used for little nurseries,” Hayes-White explains. “These fires we’re seeing are based on electronic circuit issues and the overcrowding.” The official points to a similar predicaments in Chinatown.

Of 42 working fires in the Mission since 2014, so far 32 have been deemed accidental and none has been called incendiary, the term used to describe arson. Eight are outstanding as "undetermined" while two are still being investigated. In Bernal Heights, of nine working fires one was deemed incendiary, to are still being investigated, and two are undetermined.

The Mission/Bernal fire of June 18 started not in a residential building, as originally suspected, but below one in a Cole Hardware store, itself consumed by the fire. Meanwhile, Mission Local delves into the devastation wrought by that event, gathering stories from those displaced. Everyone put out by the fire was initially moved to a Salvation Army shelter and is being provided hotel rooms until July 5. From there, those 58 people will move to temporary housing.

Most of those displaced lived in the Graywood Hotel, and while that structure is rebuilt, they'll be moved to another SRO and the city will pay the difference between their old and new rents. “Our policy is to place people in like housing,” Human Services Agency disaster response manager Ben Aymes tells Mission Local. “So if you were in an SRO, we’re gonna find an SRO, and if you were in a two-bedroom, you’re gonna be in a two-bedroom.”

Last, a small aside: Last night, Mission beer bar Zeitgeist held a modest fundraiser for the businesses displaced by the fire. As Campos put it in his Examiner piece, "our community also lost six successful locally owned businesses that significantly added to the culture of the corridor."

A photo posted by SFist (@sfist) on Jun 29, 2016 at 8:26pm PDT

Previously: Cole Hardware Building, Not SRO, Named As Source For Last Weekend's Fire
Related: Are Mission Landlords Really Burning Their Own Buildings?: An Analysis

The five-alarm fire that burned through upwards of six buildings on Mission and 29th Street has long been extinguished, but the damage to persons and property is far from resolved. Fifty-eight people were displaced in the June 18 blaze, and while thankfully no one was seriously injured, not only are 58 people now homeless but nine business have been displaced.

New drone video posted to YouTube by Alan Musselman, embedded above, shows from the air the destruction wrought by the fire. With Mission Street at the top of the frame, the backside of the burned-out buildings is depicted in painstaking detail.

Those interested in helping the victims of the fire can donate to a GoFundMe page established by once D10 candidate Edwin Lindo. At present, $45,000 has been raised. El Rio, a bar located just blocks from the fire, is also hosting a fundraiser this Thursday.

Previously: 58 People Displaced By Intense Mission Street Fire

When the Riptide was the victim of fire last year, its owners were in the middle of seeking an entertainment license.

As the bar's team explains on their Facebook page, "When The Riptide first opened, the Entertainment Commission was not fully yet up and running. All previous establishments at that location were permitted for live music, and we were told that we were grandfathered in."

It sounds like that wasn't completely the case, hence they were seeking the formal permit. "We wanted to come into compliance so that we could continue to bring extraordinary bands and live entertainment we have been bringing to the Westside for the past 11 years," they write.

That undertaking, along with plans to expand the bar to add food, was interrupted by the disaster, according to Hoodline, but as the bar prepares to rise from the ashes, we're told that a thousand former (and future) patrons have written to the Planning Commission in support of the Riptide's entertainment license.

The meeting of the commission is on June 23, and although Riptide co-owner David Quinby says the group has received over a thousand letters of support on behalf of the Riptide, "five thousand is better," he says. "We are so close to reopening," the crew writes to Facebook, with Quinby adding to Hoodline that “It feels to me it’s going to be very very soon... The music will be back, and the family and the community will be back.”

Previously: Riptide Will Return In Late Spring