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A gas line explosion caused an inferno in a San Francisco neighborhood Wednesday, the city’s fire department said. San Francisco Fire Department spokesman John Baxter said an unknown number of rescues took place.

The incident happened at the corner of Geary Blvd. and Parker Ave. around 1 p.m. Wednesday in the city’s Jordan Park neighborhood, CBS San Francisco reports. A two-story building on a corner, the site of Hong Kong Lounge II restaurant, had been engulfed in flames.

PG&E and San Francisco Fire confirmed the gas line feeding the inferno had been turned off at 3:38 p.m., almost two and a half hours after the explosion. The fire had reached a third alarm at one point, but the flames have since been extinguished. A total of four buildings were involved, according to the fire department. Five workers who had been missing were later found.

A work crew using a backhoe was in front of the building at the time of the explosion. The backhoe was consumed by flames. Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said workers apparently cut a natural gas line while installing fiber-optic wires at a business.

“We were in the store, we heard almost like an air noise,” Michael, a worker at a nearby Verizon store, told CBS San Francisco. “It sounded like pressure was building up. I saw people running across the street so I ran out. We saw flames everywhere. Construction workers saying get back. They said someone is probably dead. I’m just hoping everything is okay.”

San Francisco police had asked people in nearby buildings to evacuate and have closed neighboring streets in the Richmond District, The Associated Press reports.

Caroline Gasparini told AP she and her housemate grabbed their shoes, laptops and passports and fled.

Gasparini said they saw employees of the burning Chinese dim sum restaurant run out the backdoor of the building. They saw children at a nearby preschool preparing to leave.