SF residents concerned after neighborhood sees fires at home, church within 24 hours
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A San Francisco community wants answers after multiple fires broke out at two separate places on the same block within 24 hours.
St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church was damaged early Friday morning by a suspicious fire.
The other fire happened Saturday morning at a residential building on 15th and Wiese Streets.
ABC7 news reporter Tara Campbell spoke to people worried an arsonist may be targeting the neighborhood.
Flames ripped through Mission District apartment buildings early Saturday morning injuring two people and displacing ten more.
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The fire about a block away from St. John Evangelist Episcopal Church where about 24 hours earlier another fire forced it to shut the doors of its daytime shelter.
"We were worried that it was the church again, that someone had come back and wanted to finish the job that they had started the night before," said Reverend Kevin Deal.
Investigators now saying the church fire was set on purpose, and they're looking for a suspect.
"We were lucky that the extent of our damage wasn't as bad as it could have been, but looking at our neighbors' building, it looks pretty bad, so I don't know when they will be able to go back," said Rev. Deal.
Daylight exposing the damage from Saturday's early-morning fire buildings seemingly gutted.
"So initial reports told us that vehicles on fires had spread to the buildings, flames had spread up the back of the building, these are what we consider ordinary construction or wood frame buildings, they catch on fire and spread very quickly," said Justin Schorr, public information officer with the San Francisco Fire Department.
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More than a hundred firefighters battling to keep the blaze from engulfing nearby buildings.
The flames hitting too close to home for some.
Julian Hatfield lives just three doors down.
"Two fires on the street in two nights is obviously alarming. And yeah, not a great place to be staying right now," he said.
As for the cause of the apartment buildings fire, investigators are still trying to determine whether it was intentional.
But the Reverend says he wouldn't be surprised if the two are connected.
"You know it's just the same block at the same time, setting the fire at almost the exact same time, a night after just seems like too much of coincidence," Rev. Deal said.
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