Fire in Che Fico flue closes Divisadero, sends up black smoke

Black smoke rose over one of Divisadero’s best-known dining blocks Thursday afternoon, as a one-alarm fire near Che Fico forced firefighters to close the street and interrupt service in the middle of dinner prep. The blaze broke out just before 4 p.m. on the 800 block of Divisadero, between Fulton Street and McAllister Street, in the stretch that also includes Foghorn Taproom.

Staff inside Che Fico evacuated after smelling smoke, and video from the San Francisco Fire Department showed crews climbing to the roof and searching for hot spots. Divisadero was shut between Fulton and McAllister while firefighters worked the scene, turning a busy NOPA corridor into an active emergency perimeter.

A later update cited a San Francisco Fire Department source saying the fire appeared to start in the flue connected to Che Fico’s grills and wood oven. That detail matters because a flue fire is not just a kitchen nuisance: it can threaten the roofline, spread heat into hidden building spaces and leave behind expensive structural damage even when flames do not race through the dining room.

Che Fico is a prominent name on the block, and that is part of why the fire drew so much attention. The restaurant describes itself as an Italian taverna in San Francisco’s NOPA neighborhood and says it has been “perfecting simplicity since 2018.” It is listed at 838 Divisadero St. and has built a reputation as a stylish, hard-to-book destination, with OpenTable identifying David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer as the chefs behind it.

SFist reported that the firefight damaged the rear of the building housing the restaurant, though no damage was reported inside Che Fico itself and the business had not yet made an announcement. Even with a contained, one-alarm response, the disruption rippled well beyond one kitchen. The street closure affected a dense block of restaurants and bars in the Western Addition, where a single emergency can slow foot traffic, delay dinner service and unsettle nearby merchants in an instant.

The city’s Fire Incident Dashboard shows that incident records can eventually include the call number, address, responding units, dispatch type, actions taken and property loss. For a corridor built around packed reservations and close-together storefronts, the Che Fico fire was a reminder of how quickly a kitchen-linked emergency can interrupt one of San Francisco’s busiest dining strips.