Evan Wagstaffe/The Bay Citizen

Firefighters crowd Berkeley Way after putting out a two-alarm blaze that killed one firefighter and injured two others Thursday morning

Updated as of 4:02 p.m. on June 2, 2011.

One San Francisco firefighter died and two others were injured while battling a fire in San Francisco's Diamond Heights neighborhood Wednesday morning, Chief Joanne Hayes-White told reporters outside San Francisco General Hospital.

One of the injured firefighters is "fighting for his life," Chief White said. The other firefighter, Tracy O'keefe Courteney, was treated for smoke inhalation at San Francisco General Hospital and released. 

The fire was reported at 10:44 a.m. at a four-story home on a slope in the 100 block of Berkeley Way, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.

The blaze started on the first floor of the home and spread to at least the second story, Talmadge said.

Talmadge said firefighters saw a flash while inside the home. Around that time, a heat alarm on one of the firefighters' uniforms was activated, she said.

When commanders on the outside tried to reach the firefighter by radio, there was no response. Additional crew members were sent in, and they found two firefighters down and "pretty badly burned," Talmadge said.

The third injured firefighter was able to exit the home without help, she said.

The identity of the firefighter who died has not been released.