A six-alarm fire tore through the Spinnaker Cove condominium complex at 815 Sea Spray Lane in Foster City, California, on Sunday afternoon, producing smoke visible from across San Francisco Bay and triggering a formal police advisory — close your windows and stay out of the area — that is still in effect tonight for one of the San Francisco Peninsula’s primary SFO-proximate hotel districts. Travelers with same-day check-ins or transit plans through Foster City or adjacent San Mateo should confirm conditions with their property before arriving.
The San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department responded to the complex, located off East Hillsdale Boulevard near the Foster City waterfront, just after 2:30 p.m. PT. What began as a residential emergency rapidly scaled into one of the highest-grade responses the department can mount: a four-alarm escalation within the first hour, then a six-alarm designation by 4 p.m. PT, mobilizing units across its nine stations in Foster City, Belmont, and San Mateo, plus mutual aid from neighboring agencies.
“Firefighters found flames on the first and second floors of the complex,” SMCFD Chief Matt Turturici said at an afternoon press conference. Three firefighters were injured in the response — two treated for smoke inhalation, one for burns — and two were transported to a hospital for further treatment. All building residents were safely evacuated, according to KTVU’s reporting on the fire and injuries.
Residents were rescued from third-story windows as firefighters briefly lost contact inside
The scale of the emergency inside Spinnaker Cove exceeded a standard multi-unit fire response. Chief Turturici said the department received numerous calls reporting people trapped inside the building, and crews carried out rescues from third-story windows. Just before 3 p.m. PT, two firefighters on the third floor reported they had been briefly overcome by flames and lost contact with each other, prompting one to activate a distress call — a signal that releases additional resources immediately. Both were found safe, Turturici confirmed, as KTVU reported from the Spinnaker Cove press conference.
The Foster City Police Department confirmed the building was fully evacuated and that no civilian injuries were reported. The Red Cross was called to the Spinnaker Cove clubhouse to assist displaced residents. Road closures are in effect around the fire scene; police have advised people to expect them and to stay out of the immediate area, per NBC Bay Area’s account of the Foster City fire advisory.
Does the Foster City smoke advisory affect travelers near SFO tonight?
Foster City is a primary hotel hub on the San Francisco Peninsula — approximately 8 to 10 miles from San Francisco International Airport via US-101. Foster City’s primary hotel property, the Crowne Plaza Foster City–San Mateo, sits approximately one mile from the fire scene and markets itself as a base for tech-corridor business travel and SFO airport access. Extended Stay America San Mateo SFO, another property serving the same traveler market, operates in the immediate surrounding area.
As of Sunday evening, no hotel closures or guest evacuations at properties in the Foster City hotel corridor had been confirmed by fire or police officials. However, smoke from the Spinnaker Cove fire was visible from Oakland — a cross-bay distance of roughly 12 miles, according to ABC7 San Francisco’s coverage of the blaze — and the Foster City Police advisory to close windows and avoid the area remained in effect at the time of this report. Travelers arriving by car will encounter road closures near the scene in the East Hillsdale Boulevard and Sea Spray Lane corridor; police have not specified which roads are affected, and conditions may change as suppression continues.
No regional air quality alert was issued by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District as of Sunday evening, and no disruptions to flight operations at SFO have been reported in connection with this fire. Real-time air quality monitoring for Foster City showed conditions as “Good” at the time of this report, indicating the smoke plume from the structure fire had not risen to the level of a regional air quality event. Travelers transiting through SFO or the peninsula for Monday morning flights are not affected by any flight delays connected to this incident.
Why older Peninsula condo buildings are especially vulnerable to rapid fire spread
The Spinnaker Cove complex dates to 1981. Residential buildings of that era constructed under pre-modern California fire codes face a documented structural vulnerability: once a fire penetrates the wall assembly of an individual unit, it can travel horizontally through the interstitial attic space above the unit line and into the space above neighboring units before automatic suppression systems or arriving crews can contain it.
This exact pattern played out less than a quarter-mile from Sunday’s fire in May 2016, when a two-alarm fire on Sea Spray Lane spread from its unit of origin through the walls and into the attic above two additional units in a 42-unit building. No injuries were reported in that incident, but every resident was displaced and crews spent hours overhauling the structure. A December 2025 fire at Harbor Cove Apartments in Foster City, though contained to a single unit, displaced approximately 50 residents after a broken water pipe caused by the fire flooded the building and required a red-tag of the structure.
What travelers in the area should do right now
The Foster City Police Department’s active advisory asks anyone near the Spinnaker Cove area to stay out of the vicinity and keep windows closed due to heavy smoke. Travelers with hotel bookings in Foster City or San Mateo tonight should call their property directly to confirm whether access routes are clear and whether the hotel is operating normally. Guests who wish to reach Foster City by car should expect possible diversions in the East Hillsdale Boulevard and Sea Spray Lane area and should allow extra time.
Travelers in need of immediate assistance in the area can contact the American Red Cross Bay Area chapter, which has activated a resource station at the Spinnaker Cove clubhouse. SMCFD firefighters were expected to remain on scene for an indefinite period as of Sunday evening; Chief Turturici did not provide a timeline for when the fire would be fully suppressed or when road closures would be lifted.