A famous San Francisco landmark burst into flames on Wednesday morning as construction workers were attempting to disassemble its towering, 710-ton frame.
The Vaillancourt Fountain, located at the city’s popular and tourist-heavy Embarcadero Plaza, has long been accused by city officials as being a safety hazard. The immense stone structure has been dry since 2004, when its pumps became dysfunctional, and it was fenced off in 2025.
Workers said that on Wednesday, as they used torches to remove one of the fountain’s concrete appendages, a section of rubber tubing inside the arm may have been inadvertently set on fire, according to local media outlets. The result was a sudden eruption of flames and dark smoke high into the sky above the San Francisco Bay…