Fisherman’s Wharf warehouse burns
SAN FRANCISCO — A fire engulfed a warehouse on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf early Saturday, sending a thick plume of smoke over the waterfront before firefighters brought the flames under control.
No injuries have been reported and firefighters were making multiple searches to ensure no one was inside the building on Pier 45, San Francisco fire Lt. Jonathan Baxter told reporters from the scene.
Baxter said fire investigators were trying to determine whether homeless people were inside.
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“That is something of grave concern, that is why we’re actively trying to confirm if anybody saw anybody in this building,” he told KGO-TV.
“To our knowledge … nobody is supposed to be in the building and we are hoping … that there is no victim,” he said.
However, at least two workers told the San Francisco Chronicle they were inside the fish processing and storage warehouse when the fire broke out before dawn.
Alejandro Arellano, who works for La Rocca Seafood, was cleaning out a fish storage locker when the fire began, shortly after 4 a.m.
“I saw a lot of smoke. A few minutes later, fire everywhere,” he said. “It was very, very scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The fire tore through the warehouse near the end of the concrete pier, causing its walls to collapse, Baxter said. The flames singed the first firetruck to respond to the scene, forcing firefighters to turn their hoses on the vehicle to save it, he said.
Shops and restaurants on the wharf have been shut by the city’s stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and were expected to reopen on May 31. Fishing companies that have been operating out of Pier 45 said the fire exacerbated an already tough business climate caused by the pandemic.
101st Airborne troops end covid-19 work
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FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Eighteen soldiers assigned to the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division have returned to Fort Campbell after spending more than a month in New Jersey helping with covid-19 response operations.
Fort Campbell officials said Friday that the soldiers deployed April 14 to help provide logistical support for the response to the new coronavirus outbreak throughout the Northeast region of the U.S.
Soldiers helped receive, process and move supplies, equipment and personnel in critical areas affected by the virus outbreak, officials said in a news release.
The Fort Campbell Army post is located along the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
The soldiers will undergo a precautionary quarantine under medical supervision. An official welcome home event is being planned, officials said.
Biden wins Hawaii’s delayed primary
HONOLULU — Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.
Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by The Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination.
A total of 35,044 voters cast ballots in the primary. All ballots were cast by mail.
The party had initially planned to hold the primary on April 4 and had expected most party members would vote by mail and some would cast ballots at about 20 in-person polling sites around the state.
But concerns about the spread of the coronavirus forced the party to announce on March 20 it would cancel plans for in-person voting and allow only mail ballots. To give those who expected to vote in person on April 4 a chance to cast a ballot, the party said it would mail another round of ballots to members and wait until late May for them to be returned and counted.
The Republican Party of Hawaii canceled its presidential caucus after President Donald Trump was the only candidate to declare for the ballot by the Dec. 2 deadline. The party is committing its national convention delegates to Trump.
Texas storms spawn tornadoes, hail
DALLAS — Storms carrying large hail and damaging winds, including tornadoes, caused severe damage to parts of North Texas, officials said Saturday.
The town of Bowie, about 65 miles northwest of Fort Worth, was hit hard by one tornado about 9 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed Saturday. A weather service survey team concluded from damage patterns that the twister rated an EF1 with winds estimated at up to 95 mph.
City officials did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press, but Mayor Gaylynn Burris told the Bowie News that the storm damaged at least 50 businesses and at least that many homes in the town of more than 5,000 residents.
A police statement said no deaths or significant injuries were reported.
Severe storms also unleashed hail as large as softballs in the Wichita Falls area, about 110 miles northwest of Fort Worth, damaging roofs and vehicles.