1 lifeless, 3 injured in San Francisco encampment fireplace inside a freeway onramp
Feb 23, 2022
The San Francisco Fire Department responded to a fire at a homeless encampment early Feb. 23, 2022.
SFFD
One person died and three more people were injured during a fire at a San Francisco homeless encampment inside a freeway onramp early Wednesday morning, officials said.
The San Francisco Fire Department responded to the incident just after midnight at the Bosworth onramp on Interstate 280.
The department posted images on Twitter showing firefighters climbing into square holes in the underside of the overpass.
KTVU reported that the people were trapped inside the onramp’s “crawl space.”
Firefighters rescued four people from flames and performed life-saving measures. The department said three people are in critical condition and were transported to the hospital. One person died, officials said.
UPDATE— 4TH ADULT RESCUED PARAMEDICS PERFORMING LIFE SAVING TASKS—CRITICAL CONDITION—AVOID AREA https://t.co/fVmUzUUky1 pic.twitter.com/P4VOE1ODJP
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 23, 2022
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The incident occurred during a spell of unusually cold weather with overnight temperatures in San Francisco dropping into the 40s in recent days. Downtown SF hit 42 degrees at 3 am Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is opening pop-up shelters during the cold snap for people without housing.
Amy Graff is the news editor for SFGATE. She was born and raised in the Bay Area and got her start in news at the Daily Californian newspaper at UC Berkeley where she majored in English literature. She has been with SFGATE for more than 10 years. You can email her at agraff@sfgate.com.
