Over 150 firefighters are fighting to save a San Francisco pier from a four-alarm warehouse fire.
A quarter of Pier 45, the pier at Fisherman’s Wharf, was “lost to the flames,” Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a public information officer with the San Francisco Fire Department, said per CNN. The warehouse was consumed in the fire. The blaze was initially reported at 7:17 a.m. ET and was held back to one part of the pier.
One firefighter was wounded during the incident, suffering a severe cut to his hand. He was treated at a hospital and will likely recover. There have been no other reported injuries. The pier was successfully evacuated, as well as some neighboring businesses. However, the fire led to one building partially collapsing on the pier, then spread to two other buildings on the pier, and might spread to a third.
Firefighters on the fireboat St. Francis were able to preserve a piece of history, successfully saving the SS Jeremiah O’Brien—a ship built during World War II—from the flames. “When firefighters arrived, the flames were literally lapping over the Jeremiah O'Brien,” Baxter told CNN affiliate KPIX. “They literally saved the O'Brien.”
The warehouse had a huge fish processing operation for the northern California crab fleet. The fire department, Department of Building Inspection, and the San Francisco Port Authority are now working together to ascertain the pier’s stability.
