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By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO » Fire in- vestigators on Wednesday were looking into whether welding work was to blame for a massive blaze that barreled through an apart - ment building construction site, threatening nearby structures and prompting evacuations as firefighters worked to prevent its spread through a San Francisco neighborhood. City officials said a ca - tastrophe was narrowly avoided in an up-and-com- ing area near AT&T Park, home of the Giants. "I think we're very lucky that the fire didn't jump any - more," Mayor Ed Lee said. The exact cause of the blaze — one of the largest in the city in recent years — was under investigation. Fire officials were looking into preliminary reports that workers at the block- long site were doing torch work shortly before the fire was reported around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries. One of them, Tom Murphy, suffered burns while battling the fire from above but didn't realize he was injured for hours, said firefighter Stephen Magu - ire, whose crew was among the first to arrive. The five-alarm fire cre- ated a plume of black smoke that was visible for miles and led to the evacuation of nearby buildings as about 150 firefighters were called to contain it. A wall of the burning building collapsed about an hour after the fire began. Firefighters had to take a defensive stance because the building was leaning in some areas, Maguire said. The blaze cracked win - dows at Strata at Mission Bay, an apartment building across the street, and sent an ember onto the roof of a University of California, San Francisco building. Flames briefly spread to scaffolding at another build - ing under construction, Ma- guire said. The fire was fueled by wooden frames and other materials at the site, Hayes- White said. Because it was under construction, the building had no fire-sup - pression systems. "Our objective last night, which we were able to achieve, was to contain (the fire) to the building of ori - gin," she said. Fire officials did not yet have a damage estimate but said the entire six-story building was a loss. B y l a t e a f t e r n o o n Wednesday, construction crews were using an excava - tor to tear down the struc- ture on one end while fire- fighters on the other end doused hotspots. The Strata apartment building remained evacu - ated. Exterior sprinklers on the building must be re- placed and the fire protec- tion system restored before residents will be allowed back in, fire Deputy Chief of Operations Mark Gonza- les said. About 30 units suf- fered damage, fire officials said. Eli Brill and his wife Justyn Bellsey, both 31, tem - porarily returned to their apartment at Strata late Wednesday morning. Fire- fighters had helped them retrieve their dog the pre- vious night. "It was really scary," Bellsey said. "I'm just re- lieved that we were able to get in." The burned building was part of a residential develop - ment project with 172 units, according to BRE Proper- ties, the building's owner. It was going up in a for- mer industrial area that be- came a redevelopment dis- trict in the 1990s and has since attracted a mix of high-end residential hous- ing and retail businesses. A new University of Cali- fornia, San Francisco hospi- tal is also being built. Investigators seek cause of San Francisco fire Marcio Jose sanchez – The associaTed Press Firefighters continue to work on a fire Wednesday, a day aer a structure fire in the Mission Bay neighborhood in san Francisco. hundreds of apartment dwellers were chased from their homes by a fire at a building under construction. WeldINg AT FAulT? By eric Yoder Washington Post WASHINgTON » The impact of sequestration budgetary limits imposed last year may never be fully known, a new study says, but one effect on federal employees is clear: it cost nearly 800,000 of them upward of $1.4 billion total in lost salary. A Government Account - ability Office report exam- ined the effect on the govern- ment of the more than $80 billion in reductions imposed last spring to meet budget- ary targets. Agencies were able to soften the impact by mov- ing money within or be- tween certain accounts and by spending funds carried forward from prior years, but sequestration still "re - duced or delayed some pub- lic services and disrupted some operations," the report said. "For example, seques- tration reduced the size and number of grants, vouch- ers, and other forms of as- sistance provided to states and localities, nonprofits, and other partner entities that assist in carrying out federal missions." For the public, sequestra - tion affected beneficiaries of emergency unemployment compensation benefits, chil- dren's nutrition programs, low-income housing vouch- ers, Head Start school read- iness programs, as well as biomedical, emerging tech- nology and cybersecurity re- search, the report said. Sequestration also wors- ened problems with backlogs of Social Security disability and federal retirement appli- cations and hampered over- sight of numerous programs, leaving them more vulnera- ble to fraud and waste, it said. The Treasury Depart- ment told the GAO that the reductions to the Internal Revenue Service budget "will likely result in billions of dollars in lost revenue due to fewer tax return reviews and diminished fraud detec - tion." "However, many of the ef- fects of sequestration could not be quantified or will not be known until future years, if at all, for a number of rea - sons including the timing of when funds are disbursed (such as grant cycles that start late in the fiscal year), challenges in isolating the effects from other factors, and the lack of currently available performance data for some programs," the re - port said. Regarding the govern- ment, the GAO focused on 23 departments and large agencies, finding that most of them reduced spending on support contracts for pro - gram management and facil- ities, as well as for informa- tion technology, equipment and other purchases. All but a few canceled or limited em- ployee monetary awards, re- duced employee travel and training, and cut external hiring. Most also reduced overtime and internal hiring. Seven of the agencies put a total of 770,000 employ - ees on unpaid furloughs from one to seven days. The largest furlough, at the De- fense Department, affected 640,500 employees over six days at a cost to them of $1.2 billion, while the cumulative cost to furloughed employ - ees at the other six agen- cies was put at $169 million. Some smaller agencies not examined in the report also imposed furloughs. Some agencies did not im - pose furloughs for various reasons, and even within some that did, certain func- tions were not affected. Benefits, such as health insurance coverage and ac- cumulation of retirement funds, generally were not affected by furloughs. WASHINgTON Se qu es te r hi ts feds in wallet By donna Cassata The Associated Press WASHINgTON » A group of Catholic bishops, evangel- ical leaders and advocates pressured top House Re- publicans to vote this year on overhauling immigration in a series of private meet- ings on Wednesday. With legislation stalled in the House and prospects dimming, proponents ar - gued that action is a moral imperative and offered the unique, united front of Cath- olics and evangelicals im- ploring the House to move ahead. Bishop Eusebio Elizondo of Seattle called it an "his - toric moment" and said they "reaffirmed that every day of delay, the consequences are separated families." The participants, who spoke to The Associated Press, said they received nei - ther assurances of a vote this year nor definitive word that it won't happen. El i zondo wa s joi ned by three other bishops — Bishop Robert McElroy, the auxiliary bishop of San Fran - cisco; Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange County, and Bishop John Charles Wester of Salt Lake City. Rev. Gabriel Sal - guero, the president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, and Leith Ander- son, the president of the Na- tional Association of Evan- gelicals, were part of the lob- bying group. "We want to see a vote this year," said Salguero, who added that the House GOP leaders' principles on immigration in January had provided a glimmer of hope. The group met with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the chairman of the House Republican Con - ference; Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., the Budget Committee chairman who has spoken fa- vorably about acting on im- migration; Rep. Jason Chaf- fetz, R-Utah, and Becky Tal- lent, a top aide to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on immigration issues. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigra - tion bill last June w ith strong bipartisan support that would create a path- way for citizenship for the 11 million immigrants liv- ing in the country illegally, tighten border security and establish new visa and en- forcement programs. The measure has languished in the House despite calls from national Republicans, business groups, religious organizations and labor for lawmakers to act. Prominent Republicans have warned that the party's refusal to address the immi - gration issue alienates His- panics, the fastest growing voting bloc, and will cost the GOP in the 2016 presidential election and beyond. Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners, said the time for a vote is before Congress breaks in August. Anderson said a delay is a vote for the status quo of a dysfunctional immigration system. Ali Noorani, executive di - rector of the National Immi- gration Forum, said no law- maker told them, "I'm sorry it can't happen." ImmIgRATION Catholics, evangelicals press GOP lawmakers By Jason dearen The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO » It's a tree so rare that there are be- lieved to be fewer than 10 of its kind in the world, and it could be chopped down to make way for commuter trains in Northern Califor - nia. Preservationists are hop- ing to stoke public aware- ness and save the albino chimero coast redwood growing in the small So- noma County town of Cotati. Standing 52-feet tall, the tree features a unique mix- ture of normal green leaves and white, albino sections. It's believed to be the larg- est of its kind on the planet. But Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) offi- cials say the decision to re- move it is out of their hands. Federal regulators have determined the tree must come down for safety rea - sons. The genetically mu- tated redwood is apparently too close to a proposed set of new tracks. "We have federal safety clearance requirements we must comply with," said Carolyn Glendening, a SMART spokeswoman. "Whether it's this tree or any other tree." To mitigate the tree's loss, the rail project is re - quired to plant 20 coast red- woods elsewhere. They will also take "thousands of cut- tings" from the rare tree in an attempt to preserve it, Glendening said. The SMART rail line was approved by voters in 2008 to help ease congestion on Highway 101 through Marin and Sonoma Counties. The first 43-mile stretch of the commuter rail line is scheduled to open in late 2016, with 10 stations and so-called "clean diesel" trains designed to meet new federal emissions stan - dards. "The new engines lower greenhouse gas emissions to unprecedented levels, and they are quieter," Glenden - ing said. There is hope for the tree. Scientists and others are urging local politicians to consider a plan to move the rare genetic specimen to land nearby by the city of Cotati. Talks are underway. Emily Burns, who studies redwoods as science direc - tor at Save the Redwoods League in San Francisco, said the tree is a scientific treasure. It's a chimera — or a plant with two sets of DNA fused together — which is only seen in a handful of nat- urally occurring redwoods on the planet. Alone, albino redwoods cannot survive in the wild because they are unable to conduct photosynthesis, the process of turning sunlight into nutrients. 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