Fire closes popular San Francisco Arizmendi bakery

San Francisco’s popular Arizmendi Bakery will close Friday for a few days or more for repairs after a kitchen fire on Thursday morning, staff said.

A San Francisco Fire Department spokesman said 39 firefighters responded to the fire at around 10:45 a.m.

Arizmendi Bakery is on Ninth Avenue between Irving and Judah streets in the Inner Sunset neighborhood. The fire was contained within minutes, officials said.

In a post on its website, a bakery representative said a small fire in a flue caused damage to some equipment but did not injure anyone.

“We’ll probably have to close for a few days (or more) to fix it,” the post said. “We’re meeting tomorrow and we’ll let you know more then! We’ve turned off online ordering for now… Sorry!”

A voicemail left on the bakery’s phone number said it would continue to sell goods made earlier Thursday until 5 p.m. before urging customers to check its social media accounts for updates on reopening.

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One of the oldest food cooperatives in the Bay Area, Arizmendi was established in 1997 with support from Berkeley’s worker-owned Cheese Board Collective. The bakery takes its name from Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, a Basque labor organizer who helped to create a federation of worker cooperatives in the 1950s.

There are also Arizmendi bakeries in the Mission, Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville and San Rafael. All locations are independently operated, so decision-making power about prices and products rests in the hands of the workers at each location.