• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Glen Park Association

Up-to-the-minute news from Glen Park

  • Home
  • Glen Park Association
    • About the Glen Park Association
    • Join the GPA
    • GPA Board Contacts
    • Bylaws
    • Neighborhood boundaries
    • Financials
    • GPA Meeting Minutes
  • News Stories
    • Glen Park News
    • Glen Park News archive
  • Greenway
    • About
    • Greenway Plan
  • GPA Grants Program
  • Crime & Safety
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Volunteer Sign Ups
    • Event Submission
    • Author Submissions

There’s more to the story of the fatal fire in a Glen Park encampment

February 24, 2022 by Bonnee Waldstein

Underneath the Bosworth St. I-280 overpass, showing access where four people sheltered.

By now most Glen Parkers may have heard about the fire in a homeless encampment at the 280 South freeway overpass at Bosworth Street, at 1:17 a.m. on February 23. The fire took the life of one of the four persons who were sheltering there. The other three are being treated at a burn unit in the city.

The fire department initially received a report of a wildland fire at the freeway overpass. When they responded, they heard calls for help from an interior space. It thus turned into a heavy rescue situation as well. All told, around forty firefighters were involved in the incident, including Engine 26 from Digby Street. The cause of the fire is under investigation, although 12 hours after the event, the area was deserted. Debris was scattered around the site and a metal plate was hanging off from a hole in the concrete overpass.

 

 

 

 

 

The first car is adjacent to the scene.

Hidden from sight and thus unbeknownst to those going about their business, the spot is whizzed by daily by hundreds as they enter the I-280 South on-ramp. There’s also a crosswalk spanning the freeway on-ramp which is frequented by pedestrians on their commutes and walks through downtown Glen Park.

If there can be something like a “typical” homeless encampment fire, the San Francisco Chronicle described it as one would expect—leading to the conclusion that unsheltered people, out in the cold, may have started a fire to keep warm which then got out of control. Though tragic and indeed deadly, it’s not an especially unusual scenario.

Here are reports from a YouTube video put out by the SFFD public information office and the Chronicle:

The Glen Park News went to the scene Wednesday afternoon to investigate and met up with a man who is a friend of one of the burn victims. Fortunately, according to the man who declined to give his name, his friend seems like he’s going to be OK for now at least.

Debris from fire
Charred I-280 overpass above the shelter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The circumstances of the encampment and the fire don’t fit neatly into the narrative that we San Franciscans have grown accustomed to. As told to the Glen Park News, the situation was unusually dangerous.

According to the gentleman who spoke to the Glen Park News at the site of the fire, people had been living there for an entire year. Residents of nearby Arlington Street were also aware of tents underneath the overpass. The four people, though they might have used tents, also sheltered within the freeway bridge itself, in a gap (a “soffit”) inside the underside of the overpass which is an access point for inspection by CalTrans, the agency responsible for all maintenance and the freeway system itself.

Gate atop path is BART property.
Path leading to underside of I-280 overpass shelter adjacent to Glen Park BART station

One of the group had some skills as a construction worker and gained access to this space which they routinely entered from the ground by a ladder.

In the first photo in this story it’s possible to see one of two metal plates that covered access to this inspection space hanging open.

The residents appear to have run an underpowered extension cord to illegally tap into an electricity supply from the adjacent BART station. There are also indications they created a sort of drainage system to mitigate the inevitable dampness in the space. In fact, it was possible there were mattresses for sleeping there as well.

The interior underpass space was highly dangerous because there was no separate exit. When the fire broke out, it appears that four people were trapped inside, killing one.

The California Highway Patrol is leading the investigation into fire together with the San Francisco Fire Department. The Glen Park News reached out to the CHP for comment and connected with Mark Andrews, the San Francisco CHP area public information officer.

Right now, pending results of the investigation, he’s of the opinion the people either started a fire in the soffit or brought something into that crawl space that started the fire. Surprisingly, at least to the Glen Park News, Andrews says the same situation has occurred in San Francisco many times.

“We’ve been dealing with that issue for quite a few years and typically we’ll tell CalTrans to remove everyone from these areas. They’ll clean the area, shut it and secure it by locking it or welding some metal in place. But people, when all they have is time, will find a way to break through and use the same location again.”

At the I-280 site, Andrews said he wasn’t aware if there was a plan to secure the soffit immediately or if it’s open pending investigation of the fire.

Regarding the length of time the encampment was allowed to persist, Andrews cited the COVID situation over the last couple of years. “We haven’t been proactive in removing the unsheltered as we had been before, due to the different protocols in place.”

In Glen Park and all of San Francisco, we have become inured to the narrative of homelessness: often drug addiction or mental health issues, or both at once; lack of available services including shelter; and the last resort, pitching a tent out in the open.

For those desperate individuals, this case ironically illustrates particular ingenuity and creativity but also the danger of such makeshift living arrangements.

 

Filed Under: BART, Fire, Homelessness, SFFD, Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

Arlington Path Beautification
Saturday, July 19, 10 a.m. to noon
Meet at 300 Mateo (x Arlington) for an exciting day of weeding, watering, seed collecting.
Tools, gloves and good company provided.


2025 Glen Park Night Market poster


 


Monthly cleanup on the Greenway
First Saturday of the Month (usually)
Click here to learn more


Friends of Glen Canyon’s
Glen Canyon Habitat Restoration
Every third Saturday 9:30 a.m to noon
Sign up here

Subscribe to this Newsletter

Sign Up for Glen Park Association News Updates:

* indicates required

Check It Out at the Glen Park Library

Click the above button or here to see all upcoming Glen Park Branch Library events. Subscribe to the Glen Park Library monthly newsletter to get events highlights in your inbox.

Glen Park Rec Center

Glen Canyon Park sign
Click the above button or here to see
the latest Glen Park Rec Center schedule.



Saturdays 3-4:45 p.m.
Questions? Call 415-239-4007


 

Renew Your Glen Park Association Membership for 2025

Join the Glen Park Association and help promote our community’s interests. Together, we can secure improvement funds, publicize neighborhood concerns and strive to speak as one voice on neighborhood and city issues.

Membership in the Glen Park Association is only $10 annually and can be purchased online.

Glen Park Association Advertising Sponsors

JE_Digital Small Space Ad
Diamond Heights Digital Ad
GPA Ad- Perez Construction ad 6.27.22 v Glen Park
moroco
Center for Creative Exploration - adult
JE_Digital Small Space Ad
Diamond Heights Digital Ad
GPA Ad- Perez Construction ad 6.27.22 v Glen Park
moroco
Center for Creative Exploration - adult
previous arrow
next arrow
Shadow

Current Weather & Air Quality

Glen Park featured on…

FacebookSF ChronInstagramTwitter

Join the Glen Park Association on Facebook

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Greenway.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Saturday’s Glen Park Greenway Work Party is Cancelled.

“I’m very sorry to say that
we have cancelled our Work Party for this Saturday July 12, along with all organized volunteer activity on the Greenway until further notice.
As you may have read in the news, our fiscal sponsor, San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA), has shut itself down. Just as SFPA has shut itself down, the Greenway, as an organized part of SFPA, has also been “shut down.” We are busy looking for a suitable alternative fiscal sponsor that is willing to replace SFPA. That search is going well but it is a slow process. We had hoped to find temporary ways to enable the Greenway project to function responsibly as a community activity without a fiscal sponsor. Sadly, despite our best efforts and the help of many others in Glen Park, we have failed. That is why we must cancel our Saturday Work Party and discontinue future work parties and other organized volunteer activity on the Greenway (like weeding and watering) until further notice. We recognize that the Greenway is public open space and that the organizers of the Greenway project have no control over the activities of you or of anyone else on the Greenway. However, if you do venture onto the Greenway to satisfy your urge for outdoor recreation, please be aware that your activity is not in any way organized or sanctioned by the organizers of the Glen Park Greenway project. I’m well aware of the efforts that many of the
Greenway’s supporters are making to get the Greenway organized with a new fiscal sponsor and I’m confident that this will be arranged within weeks or perhaps a few months.
However long it takes, I will contact you with news of our progress.
Many thanks for all that you do for the Greenway.”

Nicholas Dewar, volunteer Project Director

#glenparkgreenway #glenparksf #sanfrancisco @rafaelmandelmand8 @danielluriesf @crosstowntrail
#crosstowntrail #sfparksalliance #publicspace #nature
... See MoreSee Less

Play
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • likes love sad 7
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 1

1 CommentComment on Facebook

Wonder what’s stopping just organizing it separate from that non-profit. It seems like the volunteers largely come from Glen Park.

Glen Park Association is at Laidley Street SFO.
6 days ago
Glen Park Association

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street!

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
... See MoreSee Less

It was a beautiful day for the annual #july4th celebration on Laidley street! 

📷: Photos courtesy of Michael Waldstein 

#glenparksf #sanfrancisco #laidley
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • likes love 13
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

0 CommentsComment on Facebook

Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in