SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Residents fleeing a massive blaze that killed a man and injured five people as it ripped through a San Francisco building told officials they did not hear fire alarms and could not get to fire escapes.
Authorities were examining whether safety equipment, including the sprinkler system, had been working properly after several people reported that access to fire escapes was encumbered or blocked, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said Thursday as she surveyed the damage with Mayor Ed Lee.
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Parts of Mission Street, one of the city’s busiest areas, were closed as authorities investigate. Lee, the mayor, said helping the residents and businesses displaced by the fire is the city’s priority.
The blaze happened not far from a six-story apartment complex being built in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood that sustained $40 million in fire damage last March. An accidental spark or hot or smoldering object from construction work was blamed for that blaze, which injured a few firefighters.
