Firefighters swarmed a five-story residential building on the 900 block of Geary Street just after midnight today, evacuating tenants as smoke spread across multiple floors of the century-old structure. The San Francisco Fire Department declared it an active 1st Alarm Structure Fire around 12:30 a.m., urging the public to avoid the area while crews worked to knock down the flames.
According to the San Francisco Fire Department Media, the blaze broke out in a five-story multi-residential complex, and the department reported no known injuries as of its initial post. Fire officials said they would provide updates as more information became available. The building sits at the boundary of the Tenderloin and Lower Nob Hill neighborhoods, between Hyde and Larkin streets, according to PropertyShark, an area dense with older multi-story residential buildings and heavy foot traffic even in the overnight hours.
Property assessment records reviewed by PropertyShark show the structure spans roughly 13,875 square feet across five stories and dates back to 1914 — making it more than a century old at the time of the fire. The San Francisco Cultural Resources Survey has historically cataloged the building under property names including Hotel Toronto and California Hotel, reflecting its roots as one of the neighborhood’s many residential hotels that have since converted into apartment living over the decades…