The San Francisco Fire Department resonded to a two-alarm fire, which became a four-alarm fire, in the 2800 block of San Bruno Ave. Tuesday afternoon.
Around 4 p.m. there were reports of smoke coming from a building at 2800 San Bruno Ave., according to a fire dispatcher. By about 6 p.m. the fire department said the gas line had been secured.
The building where the fire broke out was under construction, according to the fire department. A construction worker was hooking up a gas line when it caught fire, according to the department.
The worker was transported to St. Francis Memorial Hospital with life threatening burns. PG&E was on scene and firefighters were working to control the gas leak and fight flames in the building, according to the fire department.
Both buildings on the side of the burning structure were evacuated and many people who live in the area evacuated on their own, according to the fire department. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
A fire goes to four alarms when exhausted fire fighters need replacing. The house fire burned for nearly two hours.
The fire department says a major factor in the length of the fire was a PG&E gas line that was spewing gas for two hours.
While fire fighters battled wind whipped flames the gas kept gushing. Crews kept water on that gas leak while the fire spread to one other building.
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Once PG&E turned to gas off the fire was quickly extinguished. PG&E says it took two hours to shut off the gas because the shut off valve was too close to the fire, crews had to jack hammer into the street to get to the line.
PG&E says it will investigate its response.
SF Fire says it has some questions too. Three fire fighters were taken to the hospital. One with a cut and two suffering from exhaustion.
