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A five-alarm fire engulfed a San Francisco apartment building on Thursday. (Photo: ABC News | More photos at end of post)

San Francisco‘s first five-alarm fire in eight years sent people running for their lives and huge flames completely engulfed an apartment building in the Western Addition neighborhood.

High winds spread the blaze spread to three adjacent    structures, including a school, a single-family home, and a large apartment complex.

•    A five-alarm fire engulfed a San Francisco apartment building and spread to three other structures.

•    A total of 32 dwellings were destroyed, with more than 60 people left homeless.

•    More than half of the city’s firefighting force was at the scene. It took them three hours to get the blaze under control.

•   Officials have not yet determined what started the fire. It remains under investigation.

The fire was reported just before noon, according to ABC News coverage reported by the local KGO affiliate news team.

The blaze started in a three-story, wood-framed Victorian-style apartment building at 1502 Golden Gate Avenue.

“I ran in and called 911, told them our building was on fire because I didn’t know where it was,” apartment manager Richard Lenhart said. “I could see the smoke coming in at the north end of the building through one of the windows.”

When firefighters arrived, high winds already had spread the flames to another apartment building  at 1015 Pierce Street, on the corner of Golden Gate Avenue, fire chief Joanne Hayes-White said. It later spread to an adjacent school and single family home.

Residents didn’t have time to grab any belongings before they escaped from the burning buildings. They had to run for their lives as huge flames tore through their apartments. All of the residents and most of the pets were quickly accounted for, but one cat was missing. Firefighters later found the cat deceased inside of the building.

It took 150 firefighters — half of the city’s daytime force, according to Hayes-White — more than three hours to get the raging fire under control, Hayes-White said.

“It was a challenging fire to fight, but given the time of day, it was actually helpful because most people were out of their dwellings,” the chief told CBS News.

The blaze that was so hot and intense that firefighters couldn’t get to the top floor of the Golden Gate condos to search for trapped residents, Hayes-White told the San Francisco Chronicle. Firefighters attacked the flames from the roof of the apartment building on Pierce Street before they drenched the building with water, the chief said.

“If you don’t make an aggressive attack, it is likely you will lose the entire block,” she said.

Eventually one of the fire commanders ordered all firefighters and police out of the buildings because it appeared the structures were about to collapse, police captain Denis O’Leary told SF Weekly.

“I have not seen anything like this in years,” O’Leary said.

One civilian and one firefighter were transported to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to the KGO report. Another firefighter suffered a minor burn injury on his neck and also was hospitalized.

The Creative Arts Charter School was closed for winter break, so no students or teachers were in the building. The school suffered water damage from sprinklers and blown-out windows, according to the Chronicle.

A total of 32 dwellings were completely destroyed, according to CBS. More than 60 people were left homeless, with all of their belongings destroyed just three days before Christmas. The Red Cross was helping residents displaced by the fire.

Mayor Ed Lee came to the scene and promised that the city would do everything possible to support displaced residents.

“We will be here all night helping every family,” he said.

Officials have not yet determined what caused the fire to start.

Here are more photos of the fire. Click on a link to see the image full-size.

San Francisco Fire Loss Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented fire loss victims for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

A gas tanker fire severely damaged an overpass on the Pomona Freeway, closing the extremely busy commuter route for several days. (Photo: AP)

Tanker fire: A truck hauling 9,000 gallons of gasoline burst into flames Wednesday afternoon on the Pomona Freeway — State Route 60 — and melted the Paramount Boulevard Bridge in Montebello, about 12 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

The freeway, which has been closed since the accident,  is one of the busiest arteries in the metropolitan area, especially for commuters coming from eastern Los Angeles County and adjoining Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

•    A gasoline tanker exploded and burst into flames on the Pomona Freeway — Highway 60 — under the Paramount Boulevard overpass.

•    The heat melted the bottom of the overpass. Pieces of concrete crashed to the freeway below.

•   The truck driver escaped without injury.

•    The busy freeway was closed for several days. The overpass has to be demolished and rebuilt.

The explosion and fire, which investigators believe was caused by overheated brakes or possibly some other mechanical failure, occurred just after noon, according to an ABC News report. There was no collision.

The heat and intense blaze melted the truck and burned a crater into the freeway. A loud explosion was heard as the fire cracked the overpass, sending chunks of concrete crashing down onto the freeway below.

“The explosion that witnesses most likely heard was the concrete in the bridge exploding from the extreme heat,” California Highway Patrol spokesman Saul Gomez said later at a press conference.

Miraculously, the driver — and reportedly one passenger — escaped the truck without injury.

Plumes of thick black smoke completely shrouded the area, according to CBS News. Firefighters worked frantically to extinguish the flames. It took more than an hour. When the fire was out, emergency crews were able to see that there was no concrete left on the bottom of the overpass.

Officials closed the freeway between Interstate 710 and Rosemead. As Caltrans assessed the damage, the story grew worse. Thursday night, workers discovered that the freeway overpass contained fiber-optic cables “that house potentially hazardous material,” Caltrans spokesman Patrick Chandler told the Los Angeles Times.

The cables were encased in plastic tubing that contained asbestos. Cutting the cables, which ran the length of the overpass, would have disrupted phone service for nearby businesses and homes and may have released the hazardous asbestos. Yet the overpass must be at least partially demolished in order to repair or replace it.

Officials were waiting to hear from Caltrans authorities in Sacramento to determine how to proceed. Meanwhile, the freeway remained closed.

The accident made headlines all over the world. Here is a brief video of the blazing tanker:

And here are more photos. Click on a thumbnail to see the image full-size:

Los Angeles Truck Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented truck accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Six-alarm fire at Macro Plastics plant near Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield (Photo: Vacaville Reporter) Click photo to see full size.

A shelter-in-place order was issued Tuesday after a massive six-alarm fire broke out at a plastics plant near Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield.

A thick plume of black smoke rose 9,000 feet into the air as firefighters struggled to control the blaze.

Watch live ABC News video until the fire is extinguished.

•   A six-alarm fire broke out at 1 p.m. in a plastics plant located 2 miles from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield.

•   The dark black smoke plume rose 9,000 feet in the air.

•   A shelter-in-place order was issued throughout a 1-mile radius of the plastics plant.

•   The blaze appeared to be contained at around 4:15 p.m. but it still was burning and thick smoke still filled the air.

(A) Travis AFB | (B) Macro Plastics

The fire erupted at aroound 1 p.m. at Macro Plastics plant located at 2250 Huntington Drive, according to a report in the Vacaville Reporter. The plant is less than 2 miles from the center of Travis AFB.

The fire appears to have broken out in an open-air storage area at the rear of the warehouse. The five-acre space contained 20,000 agricultural containers stacked about 20 feet high.

The burning plastic containers released a plume of toxic smoke that could be seen as far away as Sacramento, Stockton, San Andreas and most of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The containers are “macrobins” used by major California fruit packing companies for harvesting, shipping and storing fruits and vegetables. They are manufactured from polyethylene and polopropylene.

Macro Plastics public information officer Margana Yahnke compared the plastic bin fire to a tire fire.

“It’s carbon-based material that’s burning, and we’ve seen tire fires that can burn for days,” Yahnke said. “I don’t anticipate this will take that long at all, however, it will take a lot of water and a lot of time.”

ABC News reporters said in a video report that polyethylene and polopropylene particulates in the smoke could harm local residents who have any sort of breathing problems, including asthma.

The Solano County Environmental Health Services agency issued a shelter-in-place order, effective throughout at least a 1-mile radius of the plant.

Air quality and environmental health officials were at the scene but could not yet estimate the nature or severity of toxic problems the blaze and smoke may cause.

There were 45employees inside the plant when the fire started, the Fairfield fire marshal told KSBW News. All of them were evacuated and have been accounted for, the fire marshal said.

No burn injuries have yet been reported.

The health department didn’t yet know how many local residents had sought medical treatment at emergency rooms due to problems related to the fire. That information is not likely to be available for several days.

Fifty firefighters were on the scene and were expected to battle the fire well into the night, the fire marshal said. All local residents are advised to stay inside their homes with windows closed and air conditioning turned off.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Fairfield Fire Loss and Burn Injury Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented burn injury victims for 35 years.  The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

In a court filing about the San Bruno fire, PG&E partially blamed residents. The utility later reversed its stand.

Pacific Gas and Electric said Tuesday it would amend court papers filed a week ago that partially blamed residents for losses they suffered in the September 2010 San Bruno fire.

•   PG&E filed a court document that listed a litany of possible defenses to future lawsuits over losses in the San Bruno fire caused by a gas pipe explosion.

• The filing asserted that a third party may be to blame for the explosion and that the victims’ own negligence may be partially to blame for their losses.

•   San Bruno residents were outraged after reading about the utility company’s claims.

•   PG&E amended the filing and issued a statement saying they do not blame the victims and that earlier cash payouts came “with no strings attached.”

•   The “comparative negligence” language remains in the filing, however, so the utility could use it to try to lessen the amount they must pay to victims.

PG&E filed court documents last week claiming that it should not have to pay victims who filed lawsuits because the explosion and fire was caused by third-party damage to the gas pipeline, according to a July 12 report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The court filing also claimed that the payments PG&E has already made to some residents meant their lawsuits were invalidated “in whole or in part.”

The utility did pay some residents $15,000 to $50,000 after the blast, but it said at the time that those payments would have no bearing on damages awarded in future lawsuits.

San Bruno City Manager Connie Jackson said she was shocked by PG&E’s court filing.

“It’s unfortunate that they have thrown everything plus the kitchen sink in this, to cover their legal strategy,” Jackson said.

PG&E downplayed the filing, calling it “a standard part of the legal process,” but residents of the neighborhood were outraged. Most of their homes were destroyed and eight people were killed as a result of that gas pipeline explosion.

The filing did not respond to allegations of specific lawsuits, but issued a litany of possible defenses PG&E might use at trial.

Following a firestorm of negative media reports on Tuesday, PG&E moved into damage-control mode, according to a July 13 report in the Chronicle.

The utility amended its court filing and issued a statement assuring that “no one at PG&E would suggest that the plaintiffs or residents of San Bruno impacted by this accident are somehow at fault for the tragedy.”

The amended court filing states that PG&E “does not blame the plaintiffs and residents who have been affected by this terrible accident.”

It also states that the $15,000 to $50,000 cash payouts issued following the disaster were given with no strings attached.

“Residents who received financial assistance from PG&E after the accident will not be asked to repay those funds or to forego the right to pursue legal claims for damages,” the statement said. “We gave our word at the time that this assistance came with no strings attached. We stand by that pledge.”

The amended filing added language to clarify the utility company’s public position but it did not remove language that could at least partially blame residents for their own losses. At issue is the assertion of “comparative negligence,” which could possibly reduce the amount of money PG&E has to pay victims if their own negligence contributed to their injuries or losses.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the disaster.

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have been representing injury victims since 1976, and have special expertise in cases involving wrongful death.  The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Three firefighters were hospitalized in a Redding motel fire. (Photos: Redding Record-Searchlight)

A cigarette butt started a motel fire that injured three firefighters, destroyed three vehicles, burned much of the hotel, and displaced at least two families last Sunday in Redding.

•   A cigarette butt that was tossed in a plastic bucket started a motel fire that took nine hours to put out.

•  Three firefighters were hospitalized for heat-related injuries.

•  There was more than $200,000 damage to the building. Three vehicles were destroyed.

The fire at America’s Best Value Inn & Suites on North Market Street was reported at about 1:20 p.m, according to a report in the Redding Record-Searchlight.

Redding Fire Department inspector Craig Wittner said the fire was started by a lit cigarette butt that someone carelessly tossed into a plastic bucket on a wooden deck outside the motel.

The bucket ordinarily has water in it, but no water was found on Sunday, Wittner said.

Initial reports indicate that the blaze started at an adjacent fence and spread to the building. It destroyed seven units of the motel, a two-car garage, a laundry room and three vehicles parked in front.

It took crews with 17 fire engines and one truck to battle the blaze — and that still wasn’t enough manpower to keep the firefighters safe, battalion chief Shane Lauderdale told the Record-Searchlight.

The three hospitalized firefighters suffered heat-related injuries because there weren’t enough firefighters to rotate shifts, Lauderdale said. Fire crews battled the intense blaze for nine hours straight.

“For safety measures, we try and monitor how long the crews work at any particular task and rotate people with fresh crews,” Wittner explained. “It reduces the amount of injuries and accidents if we can do that. However, when you only have so many people to work with; you need quicker rotation, and there’s greater stress on your body.”

The two families that were staying at the hotel — owner Ashok Patel’s family and another family — were displaced but not injured.

Patel said he narrowly escaped by slamming a hall door shot when flames burst through it.

“I just came and tried to open this door, and flames just shot through,” Patel said.

The building fire loss was estimated at more than $200,000. Other costs have not yet been tallied.

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have been representing fire loss victims for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.