A fire in San Francisco's Alamo Square neighborhood Tuesday destroyed two homes and left two people injured.
The one-alarm fire ignited at about 11:30 a.m. in a building containing two homes in the area of Grove and Fillmore streets. It was later confirmed that one of the homes belongs to Terry Williams, an Alamo Square resident and dog walker who has been getting racist and harassing mail, including dolls with nooses around their heads, San Francisco Fire Department officials said.
Police and fire investigators have not determined if the fire and mail are connected.
As soon as fire crews arrived at the scene, they quickly attended to two people who were inside the three-story building and got them to the hospital. Both are the parents of Williams.
They were on the upper floors, where there was high heat and no visibility due to smoke, fire officials said.
"I just don't feel good right now," Williams said. "I'm the only son. I feel like I should have been here. Maybe I could have stopped, prevented anything."
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
"San Francisco Fire Department is aware of the criminal investigation that is attached to this address," Capt. Jonathan Baxter said. "At this time, the fire department investigators will take that information as context for their investigation."
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Williams said he was at city hall when the fire started. The board of supervisors was taking up a resolution denouncing the racist mail.
"It's absolutely shocking," Supervisor Dean Preston said. "This is the site where we've had the most explicit, outrageous, racist threats against a family in a formerly Black neighborhood with a Black family that, despite the odds, for years, for decades, has been able to stay in this community."
Neighbors recently organized a weekend rally to support Williams as he deals with the racist mail. As Tuesday's fire raged, they moved quickly to take his three dogs to a garage nearby to keep them safe.
According to the fire department, there are seven people who live in both homes in the building. One member of the fire department said the building was red-tagged.
