04/28/2006
Car Accident Ignites Massive Blaze on Castro Street
A tragic night in San Francisco's gay neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was one fatality in a car accident that left eight vehicles charred outside the Castro Theatre and Cliff's Variety on Thursday night. Fortunately, there were not a lot of pedestrians on this normally crowded street at the time. The driver of the BMW died at the scene after a homeless man pulled him from the wreckage and a firefighter attempted to revive him.
Posted 12:00 PM EST by Andy Towle in San Francisco | Permalink
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Wow.... reminds me of the time I was boozin it up with Sir lunch alot at the Elephant Walk when a fire truck collided with a jag on 18th and nearly careened through the corner joint. As Sir lunch said "we nearly had to move".
Posted by: Mike p | Apr 28, 2006 12:40:20 PM
The driver had a heart attack and then crashed into a line of parked cars and motorcycles. The gasoline from the leaking bikes, caught fire.
And the homeless guy in question is a "regular" to the area. Some might not be so inclined to turn their nose up at him anymore....
As awful as it was, it could have been sooo much worse.
Posted by: moby | Apr 28, 2006 12:49:42 PM
Of note, most gays were supporting the Dining Out for Life restaurant fundraiser last night. Had they not, dozens would have been caught in the swath of this accident. Shows that putting others first can has good karmic benefits.
Posted by: Sean | Apr 28, 2006 12:56:03 PM
The blaze left several man with the challenge of explaining to their wives exactly what their car was doing parked in the Castro to begin with.
Posted by: peterfrnd | Apr 28, 2006 1:14:38 PM
I happened to be in the area after dark, just after attending a Dining Out event in the Metreon, when the police were taking measurements and the cars that had exploded were all numbered with plastic green pylons. It was a truly bizzare scene. I'm not normally one to gawk at accidents, but the line of exploded cars was surreal.
I didn't know about the homeless man who tried to save the one man's life. An even more poignant edge to the tragedy.
Posted by: samael7 | Apr 28, 2006 1:35:46 PM
Oh, and the Castro theater looked untouched to me. I didn't see any damage to the marquee or facade, but maybe there was something superficial that I didn't notice, since the line of cars was striking.
The accident seems to have started right after the driveway that separates the theater and All American Boy. But you can definitely see the burnt awning in front of Cliff's in these pictures. The letters to the sign are discolored, too, from the heat.
Stranger still was the fact that toward the end of the block, there was a gap of a rare vacant parking space on Castro and then two more cars before 18th street. The two at the end after the gap appeared to be compeltely untouched by the fire.
Posted by: samael7 | Apr 28, 2006 1:41:38 PM
I was sitting in my house and smeeld burning tires, went up there and it was like a movie set or something. I have never seen anything like it. Of course, the bars across the street were packed last night. Everthing in the Disastro is followed by cocktails.
Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: Adub | Apr 28, 2006 2:21:29 PM
I was there and took pics with my camera phone last night....It was so weird to see all those cars burned up! And I totally praise the guy who tried to save that man's life!
Posted by: Roy | Apr 28, 2006 4:47:01 PM
Living a block away I smelled smoke before I heard sirens. When I got down to 18th Street dozens of people were running away from Castro Street and evacuating Starbucks and other businesses (As far as I could tell all the saloons were ignoring it). When I finally made my way to Castro Street there was an ambulance patching someone up at the corner and the police were putting up yellow tape. As far as “most gays” being at the Dining out benefit. Where did the 200+ queens come from that were all watching the flames etc.? When I saw where the flames were coming from my heart sank. Was it Cliffs or the Castro Theater that was on fire? Thankfully neither because this neighborhood couldn’t survive without both of those institutions.
Posted by: KevininSF | Apr 28, 2006 4:54:11 PM
Despite its Too Hip For Their Own Good staff, the loss of the Castro Theatre, which is as close to a "cathedral" as I now get, would definitely make me weep. And, it's not just a Castro treasure, but, since the destruction of the Fox decades ago, SF's only true movie palace, and one of the few left in the US. The only local neighborhood loss that would have upset me more is my own apt. bldg. which is but a couple of doors from where the chain reaction stopped. Had one of those cars been pushed into one of the buildings and exploded, the whole, mostly wooden block could have gone.
But we could well do without Cliff's absurd markups on most things which they get away with because hardware stores are few and far between within The City. Ironically, per your grouping them, however, Cliff's space was the location of the second Castro Theatre [1910]. After the Nasser family's first theater at 18th & Collingwood, they opened the first Castro [1907] at 450 Castro, where a clothing store now is. The one we love is the 3rd iteration [1922].
Posted by: Leland | Apr 28, 2006 6:40:23 PM
I try to stay away from the Castro these days. Seems like everytime I go there I get my dick sucked and now that I'm married that might be a problem.
Glad Cliff's & the theatre are both essentially ok. Sorry to hear about the fatality. Could have been much worse.
Posted by: Chad Hanging | Apr 28, 2006 8:04:15 PM