On May 21, 1950, thousands of residents lined the downtown streets of San Rafael to watch the St. Raphael’s Mission parade. A fire began around noon, just as the marching members of the fire department were preparing to participate in the downtown parade.

At the same time, two garagemen in the paint shop at Mar Vista Motors were sanding a car in preparation for painting. During their work, one of the men noticed that a quart can of paint thinner had caught fire. The two garagemen immediately moved toward the small fire, attempting to smother it with a blanket before it could spread.

As they approached the burning can, one of the garagemen tripped and accidentally knocked it over. The flaming paint thinner spilled across the floor and spread to nearby drums of thinner, causing the fire to grow rapidly inside the shop.

The fire soon spread beyond the garage to an adjacent delicatessen, a bar, and a boarding house where many of the tenants, most of them night shift workers, were asleep at the time.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and stretched hose lines to both the front and rear of the L-shaped building as they began battling the rapidly spreading fire.

Firefighters Aubrey “Jack” Miller and William “Sonny” Bottini were inside the front of the building manning a hose line when the building collapsed. Aubrey “Jack” Miller died instantly after being struck by a falling girder. Robert Franzel, a young firefighter, was closer to the entrance when the collapse occurred and was able to escape uninjured. George Canessa and John Canziani pulled Miller’s body from the building, while Franzel went back inside to assist Bottini.

William “Sonny” Bottini was carried from the building with his clothes and gear on fire. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Bottini suffered a compound fracture to his leg as well as third-degree burns and received blood plasma from Hamilton Air Force Base. Residents also lined up to donate blood in an effort to save Sonny, but he succumbed to his injuries the following day.

In the aftermath, firefighters from neighboring departments joined members of the fire service in honoring the fallen. At both funerals, more than 100 uniformed firefighters from the San Francisco Fire Department served as honor guard, paying tribute alongside colleagues and mutual aid departments.

This fire left a lasting impact on the families, the community, and the fire service, marking the first line-of-duty deaths for the department. The loss underscored the urgent need for stronger fire codes, improved fire protection systems, and safer building practices to prevent similar tragedies. New ordinances followed, aimed at reducing fire hazards in community businesses, including the installation of additional fire alarm boxes throughout the area and broader improvements to fire prevention standards.