5-alarm fire blackens Mission skies

A fire burning at a building in San Francisco’s Mission District reached five alarms Thursday afternoon, fire officials said.

The blaze was reported at 1:02 p.m. at 2632 Mission St., a two-story commercial building that is listed as the address of Big House Inc., a retail store.

The blaze was initially reported as requiring a two-alarm response but grew to five alarms by 2:15 p.m. Mission Street between 22nd and 23rd streets as well as parts of Valencia and Capp streets were shut down by authorities responding to the blaze.

Three people, including a firefighter, were hospitalized with smoke inhalation as a result of the fire, a fire spokeswoman said.

Talmadge said the three-story building had a large amount of inventory inside from its floor to its ceiling and that the roof of the building collapsed as a result of the fire.

Police said a lot of plastic burned in the fire and advised people to stay away. Talmadge said the fire was contained to a single building but several surrounding buildings sustained smoke and water damage.

She said about 130 firefighters responded to the scene to make sure the blaze did not spread elsewhere.

Yinka Adeyemi, a security guard at Sketchers, located at 2600 Mission St., said he was inside working at about 1 p.m. when his manager told all customers and employees to evacuate because of the fire.