Images trickled out of Bay Area social media accounts on Thursday afternoon, showing shocking images of a horrific house fire in what appears to be the San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood. According to the Associated Press, strong winds are fanning the flames which are "engulfing buildings," as over 120 firefighters scramble to control the blaze at Golden Gate and Pierce near Alamo Square, where we hear the Google and Facebook buses makes pick up employeees and about 15 blocks from Twitter's headquarters. We came across the above image on Flickr, as it were, thanks to a tweet from Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake. So far, the cause of the fire is unknown, and no injuries have been reported. But, of course, five-alarm fires happen all the time all over the world, but when it happens in the birthplace and beating heart of the global social media movement, it's not only national news but also a trending topic. Which makes us wonder: if a building burns in a city with crappy wireless service, will anybody tweet?

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Adam Clark Estes