SF fire crews chop through walls to control 2-alarm fire

San Francisco firefighters were forced to cut through the wall of a neighboring house in order to control a two-alarm fire early Sunday.

At around 2:30 a.m., crews received reports of flames shooting out of the windows of a building on 42nd Ave. and Balboa St.

When firefighters arrived there were flames pouring from the front windows and the back windows of the house.

After entering the home, fire crews discovered a security gate was installed in the center stairwell to separate the second and third floors had a metal bar welded over a gap in the door well, making it “virtually impossible” for them to open it and climb the stairs, according to Asst. Fire Chief Bob Postal.

This forced crews to chop through a shared wall via the building on the left of the fire that it so they could enter the third floor.

“There were a lot of complications involved in fighting this fire,” said Postal. “It was about two hours before we had it fully under control.”

Two firefighters injured were injured during the fight and were taken to the hospital. As of 8 a.m. Sunday, there were no details on their condition.

No residents were injured but five adults and an infant who lived in apartments surrounding the burning home were displaced.

A fire investigator was on scene later that morning to investigate the cause of the fire after crews learned of aspects of the blaze that SF Battalion Chief Rudy Castellanos described as “unusual.”

The strangest issue was that the building’s only tenant at the time of the fire, a woman, waited about 10 to 15 minutes to report it, and according to neighbors, she was seen running away from area before crews arrived.

“When we got on scene, the fire had progressed not only to the second floor, but to the third floor and into the rear of the building, which tells us that the phone call to the fire department was delayed,” said Castellanos.

He added, “The resident tried to put the fire out by herself but it must’ve gotten out of control. She then ran out of the building yelling “Fire!” and a civilian in one of the other homes down the block called the fire department.”

As of 8:30 a.m., investigators were still searching for the resident.