Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Fisherman’s Wharf warehouse burns
SAN FRANCISCO — A fire engulfed a warehouse on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf early Saturday, sending a thick plume of smoke over the waterfront before firefighters brought the flames under control.
No injuries have been reported and firefighters were making multiple searches to ensure no one was inside the building on Pier 45, San Francisco fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter told reporters from the scene.
Baxter said fire investigators were trying to determine whether homeless people were inside.
“That is something of grave concern, that is why we’re actively trying to confirm if anybody saw anybody in this building,” he told KGO-TV.
“To our knowledge … nobody is supposed to be in the building and we are hoping … that there is no victim,” he said.
However, at least two workers told the San Francisco Chronicle they were inside the fish processing and storage warehouse when the fire broke out before dawn.
Alejandro Arellano, who works for La Rocca Seafood, was cleaning out a fish storage locker when the fire began, shortly after 4 a.m.
“I saw a lot of smoke. A few minutes later, fire everywhere,” he said. “It was very, very scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The fire tore through the warehouse near the end of the concrete pier, causing its walls to collapse, Baxter said. The flames singed the first firetruck to respond to the scene, forcing firefighters to turn their hoses on the vehicle to save it, he said.
Shops and restaurants on the wharf have been shut by the city’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and were expected to reopen on May 31. Fishing companies that have been operating out of Pier 45 said the fire exacerbated an already tough business climate caused by the pandemic.