Folder: S.F. Ferry Building-Fire.
Newscopy: "Flames roared through part of San Francisco's Ferry Building early this morning, but 100 firemen responding to three alarms managed to control the blaze before it hit the historic clock tower. Damage estimates ranged from $75,000 to $100,000. Cause of the fire, which broke out alongside Slip 5, at the rear of the Ferry Building, was not certain. Arson Squad Inspector Robert Healy said it may have been touched off by a cigaret. Vagrants sometimes manage to get to the area, through which thousands of Marin and East Bay residents used to stream to board ferries. 'For a while,' said acting Fire Chief Carl Kruger, 'we were afraid we'd have another Potrero Hill tunnel problem on our hands, with the flames feeding vertically instead of horizontally. Had they reached the clock tower they'd have been funneled upward, and that would have been the end.'".
Newscopy (continued): "The other big problem confronting the firefighters was to keep the flames from eating into the creosoted piling on which the building stands. The fire burned through walls at the building's back, and five offices on the second and third floors suffered smoke and water damage. These house the Alcoholic Beverage Control Agency, State Fish and Game Dept., State Division of Mines, the State Parole Board office and U. S. Public Health Service. The offices of the Port Authority and the new World Trade Center, at the other end of the building were unscathed...".
Negative #9967
