Fast-moving fire consumes SF building

San Francisco firefighters are credited with keeping a 5-alarm fire in the Mission Bay from spreading to nearby residential buildings to consume more units in a city critically short of housing.

The blaze began around 5 p.m. and escalated to four-alarms within 45 minutes as it fed off the 172-unit high-rise building that was under construction. By 6 p.m. one wall of the building had collapsed. About 150 firefighters responded to the blaze, and teams were expected to remain there throughout the night. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Fire-suppression systems had not yet been installed in the building, making firefighting more more difficult, according to Mindy Talmadge, the spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire Department. Firefighters realized that saving the building might be impossible. Instead, firefighters contained the blaze so it did not spread to four nearby residential buildings, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Even though nearby residential buildings did not sustain damage in Tuesday's fire, John Rahaim, the city’s planning director told the San Francisco Chronicle, “There's a huge need for housing right now. … Losing these units at this time is a real concern."

The emerging neighborhood is home to the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and is the result of a redevelopment effort by San Francisco in the 1990s to create a 300-acre planned community anchored by the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center at Mission Bay, which opened in 2003.

The charred building is owned by BRE Properties, a company with headquarters in San Francisco that develops builds “apartment communities” in California, Arizona and Washington. Part of the MB360 development project planned for the neighborhood, the burned building was a residential structure with 172 units, the company confirmed in a statement released Tuesday evening.

"We are currently assessing the situation, including the cause of the fire, and we will be consulting with the appropriate authorities," BRE said. "We carry comprehensive insurance coverage for events such as this including hard cost replacement, soft costs and loss of revenue."

At a nearby residential complex, The Beacon, 1-bedroom condo rented in January for $2,975 a month, and a 1-bedroom unit for $715,000 in December, according to a search of local real estate web sites.

Al Jazeera and wire services