Updated 1 p.m.
Firefighters battled a large five-alarm structure fire on Tuesday morning near Highway 101 in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood.
First reported around 6:30 a.m., the fire burned for hours, with huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the air. It burned at least six commercial buildings within the block contained by South Van Ness, Folsom, 14th and Erie streets, displacing roughly 100 workers and destroying or badly damaging multiple businesses, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.
Firefighters had mostly contained the blaze by about 9 a.m., preventing it from spreading to neighboring structures.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
About 160 firefighters and 60 trucks and engines battled the blaze, SFFD Chief Jeanine Nicholson said at a morning news briefing.
"We're just going to be on scene for quite a while longer, for several days most likely," she said. "It is still under investigation. We do not have a cause of origin at this time."