DALY CITY — Officials are still investigating the cause of fire that started at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday in a Daly City apartment building near the intersection Belmar Avenue and Crestwood Drive.
The blaze was likely caused by a sparked appliance in the kitchen area, according to North County Fire Authority Inspector Thanapong Srivieng.
Residents were evacuated safely from the building, and one resident was rushed to Seaton Medical Center due to smoke inhalation, Srivieng said.
Deputy Chief of North County Fire Authority Ron Bravo said no updated information on the victim’s condition was available at this time. Police would not comment on the victim’s status due to patient confidentiality.
**********
“The smoke has died down, but before we contain it we have to extinguish all the hot spots within the structure,” Bravo said. “That means we have to go to all the areas the fire touched and start to extinguish it.”
Bravo said fire teams are in the process of pulling down all the ceiling to ensure the fire is contained, since the flames reached the second story of the building.
Firefighters received the 911 call earlier this afternoon and arrived on the scene to fire and smoke in the building’s first story. Four apartment units were affected on the street.
Don Miralles works at the Massage Envy down the block from the blaze. He said he ran out of work immediately upon seeing the plumes of smoke. When he rounded the corner he saw flames consuming the first and second floors.
“I start hitting people’s windows, just to wake them up,” Miralles said.
He said he ran the perimeter of the with a water bottle and felt like the heat radiating from the building was going to burn him.
As people fled their residences, Miralles said he saw a man come out of the building with tar on his face and burns. He supplied the victim with water until the EMT arrived.
“He was crying in my arms,” he said. “He was just telling me he lost everything, I just felt really bad for the guy.”
He said it took about ten minutes for the fire department to show up which is why he started encouraging people to leave their homes.
Jonathan Martinez lives in a building next door to where the fire occurred.
Martinez said he is currently in school to be a firefighter at City College of San Francisco and said his first instinct was to find a fire extinguisher. He couldn’t find one, so he kicked open a window to release the smoke and see if anyone was still trapped inside.
Martinez said by that time it appeared that everyone was evacuated.
