Tough few days in SoMa -- the mysterious power outage yesterday and today, a four-alarm fire above the Olympic restaurant at Fifth and Clara that's required the CHP to close down the Fifth Street 101 onramp and close down traffic on Fifth and on Harrison. (What a dramatic way for Eve to start her first day at the Chron, which is just a few blocks down the street! Stop, drop, and roll, Eve!)
The Olympic restaurant had just been sold (though was open today), and the building has been abandoned for some time. There's been some construction work on a hostel for the top few floors of the building, but no one knows when workers were there last. Fire fighters think the fire started on the top story, and that it may have been smouldering for the past few days.
Meanwhile, the roof has collapsed, and the firefighters were ordered to evacuate. No one's been injured and no other buildings have suffered too much damage (though a neighboring building has been singed).
This isn't even the only big fire in the area today -- there was also a five-alarm fire this morning in Oakland, which burned down a carpet warehouse on 23rd Street.