A mysterious fire gutted the home of a well-known San Francisco dog walker and resulted in his parents needing to be taken to the hospital.
Terry Williams had recently been in the news when he became the target of racist threats sent in the mail — Police are investigating them as hate crimes.
It is not clear whether that has any connection to Tuesday’s fire, and officials are still looking into what caused flames to break out just after 11:30 a.m. on Grove Street, a block from Alamo Square.
When Terry Williams arrived at his house flames were shooting out of the window. His elderly parents were still inside.
“My dad said, ‘Get your mom,” Williams recalled. ” So, I got to the first floor, and they said, ‘We are getting out; we are getting her out.'”
Williams is a dog walker in the community and owns three dogs who made it out of the burning home.
“My girl dog is my mom’s favorite and was trying to get in the house to get to my mom,” said Williams.
Williams’ parents were treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Williams said he was at City Hall when the fire broke out. He said he was trying to call attention to hateful racist attacks directed at him and his family. The most recent incident involved a doll with a noose being delivered to his front door with threatening messages pasted all over the body.
He said his life has been like a roller coaster with the hate crimes.
Since all of this has happened neighbors have rallied behind them. In fact, their next-door neighbor has a sign in the window condemning racism.
Lori Santori has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and said Williams is a fixture in the community.
“It sucks what they have been going through. They are really, really kind people, and nobody deserves this especially not this family.”
Lee Stafford is Williams best friend and prays the fire is not related to the hate crimes.
“If this is a hate crime, I have trouble processing it,” he said. “I pray that that’s not what is going on here and they are unrelated. If God forbid it is related to the threats he has received over the last several weeks and month, then we need all the help we can get.”
Reverand Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco NAACP, has been helping Williams. He showed up to the fire scene today.
“This should be treated as a state of emergency and all hands should be on deck to bring this to a screeching halt,” Brown said.
According to the San Francisco Fire Department, San Francisco police were called to the scene because fire investigators found an item that needed to be “rendered safe.” Police said they were not releasing any information related to the item.
However, the fire department said the item was not related to the fire or fire investigation.
Juliette Goodrich
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