Mission Mission

(pic by me)

Last night around 11pm a fire caught between the building that houses Cha Cha Cha and the one that holds Specchio on Mission Street.

(pic by Erika)

The two buildings are just a couple inches apart, so the firefighters seemed to have a difficult time making sure they fire was completely extinguished.

(pic by me)

They brought the hoses to the roof and sprayed down into the narrow space, which would send a vertical sheet of water out at the gawkers.

(pic by me)

There were a lot of gawkers (present company of course included), coming out of the bars, probably wanting any excuse to get away from creepy Marina bros in Dr. Teeth.

Fortunately it looked as if there was no serious damage to either of the buildings, and nobody was injured. Plus I got to hear some good lines from the fireman to some drunk ladies excited at seeing some real men in action on their night out.

Fireman: “So, what are you guys drinking tonight?”

Well, I guess you don’t really need a good line if you’re in a fireman uniform and holding a 3 foot ax.

There’s already a benefit show being organized for tomorrow to benefit the victims of last night’s fire in La Lengua. The residents of the building lost nearly all their possessions and are without a place to live. Here’s the full release from facebook:

Hey Ya’ll

Many of you saw or heard about the devastating fire that happened on Mission and Valencia last night. The house that took the brunt of the damage was actually a house full of amazing friends who many of you may know and love. It looks as though the fire destroyed most or all of their possessions and made the house uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

Currently the residents are without homes, clothes, and other basic necessities and could really use assistance getting back on their feet. The four people who lost their home are all amazing people who have been active vibrant parts of our queer community in San Francisco and have always shown their strongest support for the needs of others. Now its our turn to show our support and bring together the generosity and might of our community to support them in this time of need.

El Rio has generously allowed us to take over their front room on Friday night for an emergency benefit to raise funds for these four amazing folks to purchase the basics they need to stay afloat. Please please please spread the word about this event on facebook and elsewhere and come out, dig deep and share your $$ with folks who really need it right now. At the door there will be someone collecting cash to be distributed directly to the victims of the fire, so just make sure that person gets your donation, come in, have some drinks hangout on the patio and dance a bit if you like.

Also, El Rio will also be donating 100% of their bar proceeds from 8-9pm directly to the four folks affected so come early, donate and drink.

Brown Amy & I are going to be DJ’ing & anyone else who would like to be involved by DJ’ing, speaking, whatever please contact me and let me know. ttemprano@gmail.com

*** If you are unable to attend you can make your donations via Paypal to mission3212@gmail.com ***

Friday, April 8th
8pm-2am
El Rio
3158 Mission Street
Donations suggested – as generous as you can be

[Thanks to Cat for the heads up and the flyer design]

Update: If cash aint your thing, donate stuff. Tom says:

In terms of clothes if anyone could donate some size 13 shoes or mens pants with a 31/32 or 36 waist that would be really amazing. Shirts, Mediums and larges… MUNI Passes, grocery gift cards, things like that too!

No, they’re not rennovating.  A small fire that started in the kitchen last night forced SFFD to arrive on the scene and hose down the popular brunch spot.  By morning a pile of rubbish had already been cleared outside, but the damage inside appeared to be minimal.  So don’t worry; by the time the weekend arrives, you should be able to wait 30 minutes for a table again!

UPDATE!!!  According to Mission Local, they opened at 9:30am this morning!

The current theory held by residents of the building that burned this Saturday is that the blaze was started by by a recently-evicted tenant. The disgruntled tenant allegedly set a mattress on fire and left the gas stove on as an act of revenge. SF Appeal has more on this development.

I have a couple of friends who lived in the building who lost a great deal of their belongings. It’s not the fire that causes all the damage. Water from the sprinklers does a lot of harm, too. I hope for their sake they find this (alleged) asshole.

As you may have heard, there was also an unrelated shooting involving three victims on the corner of 17th and Mission later that evening. Not a good night for that block.

[Photo by Army of Robots]

Previously:

Fire on 16th and Caledonia

Hey, this doesn’t look normal.  Wait a minute, holy shit there’s a fire in Caledonia Alley at 16th St.  SFFD has responded en masse and are dealing with the situation.  Stay posted for updates and in the meantime stay out of the fucking way! And also pray for Esta Noche.

I’ve been really digging packlercat’s “Twilight” photo album this morning.  This fire dance scene was particularly interesting: not only did he snap a bunch of cool shots but I noticed that they only people enjoying this spectacle where people with cameras in front of their eyes.  I know everyone wants to be the Ansel Adams of Dolores Park, but it’s getting to be a rare day I peep a cool scene without a million urban tourists spoiling it with flash photography.  When is “kill your dSLR” going to become the counter-culture cause du jour?  Can I join the party?

(photo)