Mission District inferno: Parents, 3 kids hospitalized

A man looks over at the building that was engulfed in flames earlier today in a 2-alarm fire at Maurices Corner Liquor at 24th Street and Treat Avenue, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. At least four residents in the building were seriously injured. less A man looks over at the building that was engulfed in flames earlier today in a 2-alarm fire at Maurices Corner Liquor at 24th Street and Treat Avenue, Wednesday, March 11, 2015, in San Francisco, Calif. At ... more Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Mission District inferno: Parents, 3 kids hospitalized 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Firefighters stormed into a burning home and rescued five family members in San Francisco’s Mission District early Wednesday, but not before a father and two of his children suffered critical injuries in the latest blaze to gut one of the city’s older buildings.

The three victims who were rushed to San Francisco General Hospital in critical condition included a 6-year-old boy who had to be snatched from a window and revived on the street. The boy rebounded, though, and joined his mother and older brother at St. Francis Memorial Hospital’s burn unit, said Mindy Talmadge, a Fire Department spokeswoman.

The father, 38-year-old Mohamed Shaibi, remained “in pretty bad shape,” said his twin brother, Muthana Shaibi, who spoke at the scene of the fire after visiting San Francisco General. Doctors were also treating Mohamed Shaibi’s 13-year-old daughter.

The fire — which quickly escalated into a fully involved inferno — broke out at about 4:30 a.m. at the home on the corner of 24th Street and Treat Avenue, firefighters said. The cause was under investigation, and fire officials did not immediately reveal whether the home had working smoke alarms.

Brother handed over

Before dousing the flames, firefighters used a ladder to reach a second-story bedroom window, where a 17-year-old boy had called to them while holding his 6-year-old brother, said Battalion Chief Tom Abbott. The teen handed the unconscious boy to rescuers, who revived him in the middle of the street. The teen was then brought down — and given CPR as well — before he was whisked away to the hospital.

At the same time, firefighters clambered up a narrow stairwell leading to the residence. There, they encountered the 13-year-old girl, who had collapsed in the doorway.

Video: Family Of 5 Seriously Injured In 2-Alarm San Francisco Mission District Fire

While one team pulled the girl out of the building, other firefighters ducked beneath heavy flames and thick black smoke, crawling deeper into the home in search of more victims. They found Mohamed Shaibi and his wife trapped in a hallway, according to fire officials and relatives.

Unable to get back out of the now-engulfed front door, firefighters moved with the victims toward the back of the home, where they met additional crews and escaped through a back door leading to a deck, Abbott said.

2 men sleeping in store

During the rescue, crews clipped a padlock on the front gate of Maurice’s Corner Liquor, which was run by the family, as part of a “systematic approach to fighting the fire,” said Assistant Fire Chief Matthew McNaughton.

Inside the liquor store, firefighters heard a sound before a “hand shot through” a door. Two men who were sleeping inside the smoke-filled store came out unharmed — and later took off from the scene, McNaughton said. Who they were, and why they were in the store, was not immediately clear.

“For such a tragic event,” Abbott said, “it’s amazing how quickly everybody was rescued.”

Once all of the occupants were out of the home, firefighters turned on the hoses and brought the flames under control around 5 a.m., keeping the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings.

Photo: Google Maps A family was injured during a house fire on 24th Street near Treat...

A spokeswoman for San Francisco General said that the 6-year-old boy was recovering before his move to St. Francis, but that his father and sister remained in critical condition. None of the other family members injured in the fire was identified by name.

At the fire scene, crews pulled debris from the home, including charred boards, mattresses and furniture, while investigators probed inside to determine the cause and origin of the blaze.

Curious neighbors gathered as the morning broke to marvel at the burned-out building on a busy intersection in the heart of the Mission. Regular customers of the store, meanwhile, stopped by to check on the family’s condition.

“I think people can have bad attitudes about liquor stores — but they are really nice people,” said Carmen Benedet, who lives near the store and was one of those looking for information on the family’s condition.

News of the serious injuries upset her as she recalled speaking recently with the teenage son about school.

“It just shows life changes really quickly,” she said. “There are a lot of old buildings around here and you just never know.”

“This doesn’t look good,” said 28-year-old Rachel Waner, who lives next door but was not home during the fire. “Everything in this city is made of wood and is old. It’s disheartening to come home and be reminded of that.”

On Jan. 28, a huge fire tore through a building at the corner of 22nd and Mission streets, half a mile away. One man was killed and six people were injured in the four-alarm blaze.

Three days later, another four-alarm fire damaged at least 17 units in four residential buildings on the 1500 block of McAllister Street, and on Feb. 21 a fire damaged three buildings in the city’s Castro district.

“That fire was too close,” Waner said of the Jan. 28 fire. “This is way too close.”

Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky