Crews demolishing building in Mission Bay fire

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Demolition is continuing right now at the site of the five-alarm fire. It's looking nearly impossible for officials to say when the area can reopen. This could cause problems for neighbors and drivers for a long time to come.

Asked when the street will reopen and when work there will be done, SFFD Battalion Chief Michael Thompson says simply, "when it's safe."

Meanwhile, some of the people who live in the apartments across the street are coming home.

The constant noise of heavy machinery combined with the smell of smoke that still hangs in the air is not exactly a welcome wagon.

"The two of us actually just moved over here from London about two weeks ago," said Strata at Mission Bay resident Carolin Helff. "So literally we're evacuated from our new house after nine days. So it's a bumpy road so far."

Helff and Ellie Hermon stayed away all night. They don't know what they're returning home to this morning.

"Hopefully it's not too smoky, not really sure yet," said Strata at Mission Bay resident Ellie Hermon.

Fire officials are also unsure about what will happen next. The fire appears to be out. And demolition is moving forward. But the situation could change at any time.

"A lot of it depends on how well the building collapses," Thompson said. "And what we find and if any flareups do happen then we have to stop and we have to address those. And putting this much water on a building this big, you know, there's time when we could be putting water on it for three hours before we're ready for the next step."

One of the next steps is getting fire investigators, building inspectors and structural engineers inside the burned out remains of the building. But a timeline for that is unclear.

"As of right now, nobody is going in the building," Thompson said. "We're actually keeping people away from even being near the sides of the building, just because all the scaffolding is sort of laying on top of the collapse."

Across the street, Hermon and Helff brace themselves for what they'll find in their new apartment.

"We've seen a couple pictures actually yesterday from the doors that were axed down and windows broken," Helff said. "So we hope that it's not too bad and doesn't look like a war field in there."

On Thursday crews were busy taking down the tallest section of what was still left standing from the building. It was one of the more major projects of the morning.

As for a cause, the battalion chief mentioned Wednesday that welding might be a possible cause, but that is still very preliminary at this point. As we mentioned, fire investigators haven't even been inside the structure yet.