NOTE: This post will be updated as new efforts and events are announced.

Last night, a family displaced by last weekend’s five-alarm fire left the Salvation Army shelter where they’ve been living ever since they were forced to flee from their home. Bernal neighbor Sana Saleem reports that the family and their one year-old daughter moved into a local Airbnb provided for free under the company’s disaster recovery program. It’s just a beginning, of course, but it’s an encouraging sign that efforts to help displaced residents and small businesses get back on their feet are gaining momentum.

Simultaneously, a broad array of community members are coming together to raise funds that will assist the victims of last weekend’s fire in a longer-term way. As Bernalwood emphasized earlier this week, this recovery effort is a marathon, not a sprint.  Here’s a summary of how you can contribute to fundraising efforts for the fire victims:

FUNDS
The Mission Economic Development Agency has created a fund for fire victims, and yesterday MEDA launched a dedicated webpage where anyone can contribute.  100% of donations will go directly to tenants impacted by fires in residential buildings in and around the Mission. Added bonus: Donations to the Mission Tenants’ Fire Fund are tax deductible.

Edwin Lindo’s fundraising effort is also continuing. The fund has collected $38,500 as of this writing, with a goal of $100K. Apart from gofundme’s fees, all the donations will go to fire victims.

EVENTS
Friday, June 24, 4 pm – closing @Doc’s Clock (2575Mission near 22nd): This Friday 50% of all proceeds from drinks served at the divetastic Doc’s Clocks bar will go to MEDA’s fire victim’s fund.

Sunday, June 26, 3 pm – 6 pm @Barebottle Brewing Co. (1525 Cortland): Barebottle is having a fundraiser for the fire victims in their gorgeous new brewery and tap room, Sunday June 26, 3-6pm. 50% of all beer proceeds will be donated to fire victims.

Thursday, June 30 8 pm – 11:30 pm @El Rio (3158 Mission near Precita): The Fundraiser for Survivors of Mission Fire on Mission St & 29th will be a great way to have some fun and amplify your impact. The door fee will be $10 with no one turned away, and a generous corporate donor has offered to match all proceeds collected at the door.  The fabulous El Rio team is also donating all bar proceeds from 8pm -12am  to the fund.  There will be music, a raffle, and one very beautiful community coming together to help. Bernalwood is a co-sponsor, and complete details are here.

Wednesday, July 13 @Elbo Room (Tentative): Can’t make it to El Rio next week? Don’t worry about it. This one is just coming together, but the beloved Elbo Room also reached out to Bernalwood with an offer to host a fundraising event for Bernal fire victims. We’ve picked a tentative date, and the rest is TBD, but we’re hopeful a corporate donor will again match donations from the door proceeds . Pencil this in on your calendar, and stay tuned for more details soon.

In addition, InsideScoop created a great summary of fundraising efforts announced by restaurants and bars along our stretch of Mission Street. If you’re hungry, or thirsty, here’s how you can help:

Front Porch: Until July 1, 10 percent of sales will go to fire victims through the Red Cross, as will all profits on the evening of July 5, during a larger benefit. In addition, the restaurant is spearheading a Bucket Brigade (it specializes in buckets of chickens) with gold buckets behind the bar to collect additional cash donations. Nearby Rock Bar will also be participating. The goal is to raise at least $3,300 in honor of 3300 Club.

Ichi Sushi: Starting June 27, all sales from Yuzu Chicken Wings and Lavender Lemonade will be sent to neighborhood funds that support those displaced by the fire. The restaurant also plans to host a fundraising dinner with other chefs in the near future.

Old Bus Tavern: Net proceeds from sales of Pisco Punch (made with Pisco, lime juice, pineapple and clove) will be donated to victims of the fire.

The Pizza Hacker and Blue Plate, located nearby, say they plan to announce fundraising plans soon.

Sidebar: InsideScoop’s article is a great read that provides insight into the close-knit bar and restaurant community in La Lengua.  It also includes this inspiring shout-out for two establishments that swung into action even as the fire was still burning hot:

Restaurants in the immediate area had to close Saturday night, and some began feeding the firefighters instead. Front Porch supplied fried chicken and iced tea, and Good Frikin Chicken set up a table with rotisserie chickens, rice, falafel and homemade mac n cheese.

AID FOR FIRE-DAMAGED SMALL BUSINESSES
Small Business Relief Fund created by the Mission Bernal Merchants Association: MBMA is the merchants’ group along along Bernal’s Mission Street corridor, and the organization is raising funds to help fire-damaged businesses recover, relocate, and start the rebuilding process to get back up and running as soon as possible. Donations to this fund are tax-deductible.

For the small businesses impacted by the fire, today also brought a ray of sunshine from City Hall. The Examiner reports that each small businesses may each receive $10,000 from a special City fund designed to help them get back on their feet:

In response to the fire, Mayor Ed Lee directed the Office of Economic and Workforce Development to activate The City’s Small Business Disaster Relief Fund, which provides emergency money to small businesses affected by the fire. There’s about $200,000 available in the fund. Businesses will take advantage of the disaster relief money, and paperwork is already underway to secure funds for those businesses.

Got all that? Earlier in the week, Bernalwood urged you to keep your wallets and checkbooks warm for future use, and hopefully you now understand why: There are a lot of ways to help the victims of the fire recover. Thanks for your generosity, and special thanks to all the people, companies, organizations, and agencies that have worked tirelessly this week to launch these recovery efforts.

PHOTO: Top, Neighbors displaced by the Mission Street Fire on Saturday evening. Photo courtesy of Sana Saleem

The next few weeks will be critical for the 56 Bernal neighbors displaced by last weekend’s big five-alarm fire. Donations have been flowing in, and several fundraising efforts are getting underway to provide longer-term support and rent money. (More on these soon.) But in the meantime, the fire victims must find places to stay, because the current shelter won’t stay open for very long — and besides, it’s rather spartan there.

It’s the kind of situation that makes you think: Hmmmm. If only there was a system that could connect fire-displaced neighbors with the many generous people in the area who would be willing to make extra rooms available for them, for free, on a temporary basis. In other words, if only there was something sort of like Airbnb, but for disaster victims who need interim emergency housing while they search a more permanent place to stay.

Fortuitously, such a thing actually exists, and it’s called… Airbnb. Specifically, it’s Airbnb’s Disaster Response & Relief Program, and it was activated yesterday for victims of the Mission Street fire in collaboration with the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management and the Red Cross. Here’s how Airbnb says the program works:

When disasters strike, we can activate our response tool for a designated geographic area. When the tool is activated:

• Airbnb automatically Emails hosts in the affected area, asking them if they are able to help
• Existing hosts and local residents with extra space can host those in need for free
• All Airbnb bookings in the affected area are fee-free
• All hosts have access to Airbnb’s 24/7 customer support, Trust & Safety tools, Host Guarantee and other services regularly available to Airbnb hosts
• We use our networks to provide general disaster response information to guests and hosts

By way of backstory, Bernalwood learned about Airbnb’s disaster assistance program a few years ago, and we remembered it on Sunday, after visiting the Salvation Army shelter on Valencia where some of the fire victims are staying. A friend connected us with the manager of Airbnb’s disaster relief program, and we reached her as she was on her way back from Orlando, where Airbnb had been assisting families recovering from that city’s horrific gay nightclub shooting. On Monday Airbnb was in contact with the Department of Emergency Management, and by Monday evening, the program was ready to go. The email went out to local Airbnb hosts on Tuesday, and  free listings for fire victims began appearing on the Mission Fire disaster page soon after:

Airbnb’s  program for the Mission Street Fire victims will operate in coordination with the local Red Cross.  Airbnb tells Bernalwood:

Our thoughts are with those affected by the fire in San Francisco over the weekend. We have activated our Disaster Response Tool and encourage our host community in the surrounding area to aid displaced residents with housing.

Right. We encourage that too. Now that things are all set up,  please consider joining the Disaster Response program if you have an Airbnb listing that you can make available to assist a displaced neighbor on a temporary basis. It’s a tremendously neighborly thing to do, at a time when some of our neighbors need it most.

PHOTO: Top, Neighbors displaced by the Mission Street Fire on Saturday evening. Photo courtesy of Sana Saleem

Yesterday, the San Francisco Fire Department held a press briefing at Secession Art and Design to provide an update on the status of the investigation into Saturday’s traumatic five-alarm fire. You can watch a video of the full session here.

ABC7 says so far there’s no evidence of foul play in connection with the fire:

“The building of origin is 3312 which is the Cole’s Hardware store with residential above it. As to the exact spot within that building, that’s still under investigation,” San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Jonathan Baxter said.

One of the immediate concerns when this fire broke out and one that remains from neighborhood residents is what seems to be a disturbing trend of devastating fires at low income, rent controlled buildings.

But the fire department said they’ve never been able to find a nefarious link to this or any other Mission District fires, so far. “Past fires have been attributed to electrical issues, heating issues and human error issues,” Baxter said.

Some residents were allowed to return home to retrieve belongings.

Officials said 57 people were displaced, and half are from the corner building, a low income voucher hotel.

The property was damaged, but city agencies told ABC7 News it can be repaired so residents can eventually move back in.

Cole’s Hardware will be torn down as a total loss and the same goes for the Playa Azul restaurant building.

Other than the fact that the fire started at an unknown location in the Cole Hardware building, there were few other salient details from the press conference:

• There were four residential units above Cole Hardware.
• The exact spot where the fire started in the Cole Hardware building is not yet known.
• The sprinklers at the Graywood Hotel were operational, and the sprinklers activated during the fire.
• The fire alarm system at the Graywood Hotel also activated.
• There were no open fire hazard complaints for the Graywood Hotel or Cole Hardware buildings.

Meanwhile, efforts are continuing to find more permanent shelter for those displaced by the fire, and significant resources are now being applied to the problem.

The Graywood Hotel is believed to be repairable, and the expectation is that residents will be able to move back in once repairs are complete. That’s the good news. The bad news is that repairs may take a long time.

Bernalwood is involved with several efforts to provide assistance to displaced residents and raise funds to help defray their housing costs, and we’ll have more to say about all that very soon. Local merchants are also rallying to help impacted small businesses. It should come as no surprise, but our community has risen to the occasion to provide the assistance the fire victims need. Stay tuned for more detail about additional ways you can help.

PHOTO: Fire scene on the morning after, June 19, 2016, by Telstar Logistics

By Sunday evening, the smoke had cleared, firefighters had left the scene, and Mission Street had reopened to bus traffic following the devastating five-alarm blaze on Saturday that left dozens of Bernal neighbors displaced from their homes. The  current damage report: 56 people displaced. No significant injuries. Six buildings destroyed or damaged. Nine small businesses impacted.

While there have been plenty of conspiracy theories floating around, investigators have not yet identified the cause of the blaze. Century-old wood buildings and shoddy electrical systems are a likely culprit. SFGate reports that the fire may have started at the SRO Graywood Hotel, where residents first reported seeing smoke and flame:

Greywood residents have filed almost 50 complaints over the past two decades, resulting in numerous citations, according to San Francisco Department of Building Inspection records.

In the past year, inspectors found that a heating system at the hotel was installed without a permit and that possible wastewater was flooding into units. Residents also often complained about circuit breakers that would trip several times a day, cutting off some power to the buildings.

While the investigation continues, the struggle is just beginning for those displaced by the fire. The immediate drama of the fire subsides quickly,  but our displaced neighbors now face weeks of effort to rebuild their lives and establish permanent housing.

In the short term, about 25 people displaced by the fire have taken shelter at the Red Cross disaster center set up at the Salvation Army facility on Valencia between 22nd and 23rd. Bernalwood visited the facility on Sunday, where we were told the shelter will be only open for about a week. And after that?

That’s the important thing to remember in the wake of a crisis like this: The effort to assist those impacted by the fire is a marathon, not a sprint. So with that in mind,  here’s what’s happening, and how you can help:

Housing
There are two phases to the effort to find new housing for those who lost their homes in the fire. Phase One is about finding stable transitional housing for a few weeks while fire victims begin replacing lost personal effects and rebuilding their lives.  Phase Two is about finding a more permanent place to live at a price former tenants can afford.

If you have space available on a short term basis that you’d be willing to open up to a fire victim, or if you’re an Airbnb-style host with a bed you sometimes make available, this is your moment to shine. Please contact Hilary Ronen from Supervisor Campos’s office at 415-554-7739 if you have space available for a few days or weeks.

Longer term, San Francisco’s Good Samaritan Tenancy Program allows people to rent space to tenants for up to 2 years, without having to comply with eviction protection laws at the end of the tenancy. If you have a unit  that you’d like to make available under the program, contact the City’s Human Services Agency or Supervisor Campos’s office.

Donations of Replacement Goods
Many victims of the blaze lost most all of their possessions on Saturday. Yet as tempting as it is to donate extra clothing and housewares to the cause, that’s not the most effective way to provide assistance. Aid agencies and displaced people can quickly be inundated with piles of redundant or non-essential stuff (and indeed, that already happened this weekend).

Past experience suggests that one of the most useful ways to help is by donating gift cards from Walgreens, Safeway, and Target, so victims can replace lost items on an as-needed basis.  (HINT: You can buy gift cards for a variety of merchants at our Taoist Safeway, near the fire site.) If you’d like to donate gift cards, please drop them off this week with the San Francisco Red Cross at the disaster relief center at at 1156 Valencia Street.

Fundraising
This is a big deal, because when all is said and done, money can solve a lot of the hardships and expenses associated with dislocation.

But again: Remember that the relief effort is a marathon, not a sprint, so focus on maximizing your impact. It may take a few days to organize a broad-based fund that will make every dollar you contribute goes as far as it can — say, through matching contributions from local corporations, or the creation of an efficient and equitable distribution mechanism to allocate donations. As generous as Bernal neighbors are, it’s also true that people’s capacity to give is limited, so think about phasing your donations over time so you’ll also have something to give in the weeks ahead.

Short-term, Edwin Lindo has organized a fund that has already raised more than $20,000. The current goal is $25,000, and (happily) that target is well within reach. This is a great place to start.

Longer-term, there will be additional fundraising drives like the one that generated $180,000 for the victims of the 2015 fire at 22nd and Mission. Efforts to organize similar large-scale fundraising campaigns are just getting underway, so keep your wallets and checkbooks warm for future use.

Bernalwood will keep you posted on additional ways you can help.

PHOTO: Fire scene, Sunday morning, 10 am, by Telstar Logistics

A five-alarm fire broke out this afternoon at around 3 pm on the 3300 block of Mission Street, near 29th Street. Initial reports indicate the fire began in 3318 Mission, the building that houses the Playa Azul restaurant.

The blaze quickly spread to Cole Hardware next door, followed by several other buildings on the block. This was the view from San Jose, looking east down 29th toward Mission:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0BVlXMtF4/

By 4:15 pm, the SFFD said the fire was not yet under control. No injuries are reported, but many Bernal neighbors who lived in the impacted buildings are now displaced.

Bernalwood will provide additional details on the fire, and efforts to assist our displaced neighbors, as more information becomes available.

UPDATE 5 pm: Mayor Lee is on the scene, coordinating efforts to find shelter for displaced Bernal neighbors:

5:50 pm: As firefighters continue working on the scene, the scope of the damage is becoming more clear. The Playa Azul and Cole Hardware buildings are gutted. The corner building that houses the 3300 Club shows clear burn marks on the back side.

Meanwhile, along with the mayor, the Red Cross is on the scene to assist displaced neighbors.

6:20 pm: The Salvation Army reports 46 people displaced by the fire. The Salvation Army community center at 1156 Valencia will house fire victims tonight.

9:08 pm: Bernalwood is in contact with the Salvation Army, where displaced residents will be sheltered tonight. The Salvation Army asks would-be donors to hold off on donating items until the exact needs of the victims are properly assessed.

The Salvation Army shelter is a very temporary solution; the challenge for tomorrow will be to establish more stable transitional housing for displaced neighbors.

Sadly, many won’t be going home soon. MissionLocal shared a photo of the scene from street level on Mission. Playa Azul and Cole Hardware were gutted by the fire. Taco Loco looks badly damaged, along with the residences above in the Graywood Hotel.