Sprinklers urged after apartment fire
A San Francisco supervisor has vowed to introduce legislation requiring sprinklers in older buildings after a large fire broke out at a highrise apartment complex in San Francisco’s Financial District early Friday morning — for the second time in two years.
The Fire Department was investigating whether a battery from a charging scooter ignited the blaze, according to a document reviewed by The Chronicle.
The east tower of the Gateway apartment complex at 440 Davis Court caught flames around 1: 20 a. m. Friday morning, displacing 15 people and injuring five. The fire damaged three units and may have exposed latent asbestos, authorities said.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the Financial District, said he plans to introduce legislation that would require Gateway and “the handful of similarly situated buildings” to implement firesafety measures.
The building does not currently have a widespread sprinkler system, and like other buildings of similar age, it was not required to, Peskin said. The building was required only to have sprinklers in the basement storage areas, along with water hoses in elevators.
The previous fire at the 55year old Gateway complex, in October 2018, displaced residents in 30 units and raised questions about the lack of a sprinkler system. Built in the 1960s, the Gateway was not required to have them. The 2018 fire began on the 12th floor. Friday’s fire began on the 11th floor of a different span of the complex, according to fire officials.
“We got lucky — again, but sprinklers are going to be mandated,” Peskin said Friday morning after officials reported no major injuries from the fire.
Greystar Real Estate Partners, the company that manages the Gateway, said through a spokeswoman that
“It is time to retrofit the last of these vintage buildings that need to have sprinklers in common areas.” Supervisor Aaron Peskin, after Financial District blaze
the company was cooperating with the Fire Department’s investigation.
“It is time to retrofit the last of these vintage buildings that need to have sprinklers in common areas,” Peskin said. “The fire marshal and my office have been working out the final details of this legislation that should be ready for introduction in January.”
A video posted to Twitter by the San Francisco Fire Department showed roaring flames about halfway up the apartment complex’s east tower.
Five people were injured, according to Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the Fire Department. Three were taken to a local hospital for treatment and the others were tended to at the scene, but all of the injuries were minor, Baxter said.
Firefighters stopped the blaze’s forward progress shortly before 2: 30 a. m. Friday, about an hour after firefighters first responded. A long streak of heavy scorch marks were visible on the building’s south side, which faces Washington Street and the smell of smoke lingered in the air. One balcony appeared to have partially collapsed.
Residents were able to return to the building shortly before 4 a. m. Twentytwo units on the 11th floor and one unit on the 12th floor were uninhabitable, according to the Fire Department.
Angela Johnston was asleep in her apartment when a fire alarm woke her up after 1 a. m. She put on her clothes, grabbed her elderly dog, Kippy, and evacuated with other residents. Johnston said she tried knocking on her neighbor’s door but didn’t hear an answer.
“It definitely was unexpected,” Johnston said. “I’m just hoping a lot of people make it out OK. There’s a lot of elderly people who lived in my building.”
When Alexis Calimeris was looking for an apartment in a highrise apartment complex earlier this summer, she knew she wanted to live on one of the lower floors — just in case a fire broke out and she needed to evacuate.
Early Friday morning, she was glad she picked the sixth floor.
About 1: 15 a. m., she was awakened by the sound of a fire alarm at the Gateway apartment complex. She only had time to grab her coat and her mask before needing to evacuate.
“The mask is part of the evacuation kit now, for sure,” she said. “Which is hard when you’re woken up from a very deep sleep.”
Dozens of other residents gathered outside the scorched apartment building.
The fire bookended a hectic week for Alex Darden. On Wednesday, his apartment in a different building at the complex flooded. He was given a temporary apartment on the eighth floor of a different building.
He lived there for two days before having to evacuate after the building caught fire.
As Darden stood outside, looking up toward the scorched building, he immediately thought of everything he left behind.
“It’s always interesting,” he said. “Every time a fire alarm goes off you always want to take your essentials — but then you worry about what you leave behind.” Darden said it pained him to say that he was worrying about his work laptop.
But he also did not forget his mask.
“That’s kind of the standard of today,” he said. “Making sure I got my wallet, keys — and my mask.”