Fifteen people, including a San Francisco police officer, on Saturday was left injured after a 1-alarm fire broke out inside a six-story apartment building in the Tenderloin District.
The Sierra Madre Apartments erupted in flames early Saturday, sending a towering smoke plume billowing out of the top of the building. The building houses 40 apartment units with as many as 60 people living in them.
The fire injured more than a dozen people, but no one has reportedly died, thanks to the heroic act of David Carpenter, an apartment resident.
“We have a lot of paraplegic people in the building,” Carpenter told CBS News. “We have people that are bedridden, a lot of elderly people. I just went into rescue mode, started banging on doors and went down to get our friend who is paralyzed out of his bed and try to get him out safely. The only stairwell is in the middle of the building. It’s very steep. It was not engulfed but there was stuff raining down in the stairwell as we were carrying him down to get him out of the building.”
The building is owned by the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. A spokesperson for the company said they are working to relocate tenants affected by the fire.
