Japantown YMCA closed indefinitely after fire did ‘extensive damage’ on Sunday

Japantown YMCA closed indefinitely after fire did ‘extensive damage’ on SundayImage: Marsha Z. via Yelp
Joe Kukura
Published on November 28, 2022

The Buchanan YMCA in SF’s Japantown was already temporarily closed prior to this weekend, with its website saying “Temporarily Closed for Indoor Wellness and Senior Programming.” And that may have been for the best, as KRON4 reports the Buchanan YMCA had a one-alarm fire Sunday afternoon around 1 p.m., and that “no injuries have been reported,” likely thanks to the fact that no one was at the facility. 

 

A one-alarm fire may sound small, but the Chronicle has a picture of the blaze at the YMCA that shows extensive flames on the first floor, and fire spreading to the second floor. That paper notes that “Responding firefighters contained the one-alarm fire around 1:12 p.m.,” so thankfully, not long after the fire department posted the tweet above.

In a statement to SFGate, SFFD spokesperson Jonathan Baxter said that the fire started outside the facility, then spread inside. Baxter noted the fire did “extensive damage to the outside and moderate damage to two floors inside.” 

Per SFFD, there was no one inside the facility when the fire took place, and no one was injured in the blaze.

The cause of the fire at this Buchanan and Geary Streets YMCA facility is still not known, and remains under investigation as of Monday.