An over-the-counter permit at a 78-unit Outer Richmond apartment building covers fire and water damage in four units at $150,000 — filed to clear two open city notices of violation that trace back to a fire logged January 6.

The record for 491 31st Avenue, a four-story, 78-unit wood-frame apartment building in the Outer Richmond, is specific about where the damage was: units 407, 307, 304 and 204. An over-the-counter alterations permit filed with the city on July 29, number 202607295718, describes "scope related to fire and water damage that occured in" those four apartments — "interior finishes, doors, and electrical work," all of it to be "replaced like for like."

The estimated cost is $150,000. That makes it one of the larger repair jobs on 31st Avenue this month; most recent filings on the avenue run smaller, from a $4,000 job near the 2600 block to a $250,000 alteration up at 2100.

The permit is doing more than fixing burned units — it's filed, the record says, "to comply with" two notices of violation the city had already logged against the building, numbers 202649157 and 202655176. Those two records exist independently in the Department of Building Inspection's complaint tracking, and they put a clock on the damage. The first, complaint 202649157, is described simply as "Fire damage" and was filed on January 6, 2026, with a first notice of violation issued the same day; the city sent a final warning letter on April 27. The second, 202655176, was filed that same April day, drew its own notice a day later, and reached a final warning on July 14. Both remain active.

What those two records establish is plainer and harder than any single filing: a fire on this block in early January, damage the city flagged twice, and warning letters that ran from April into July before a repair permit was filed at the end of the month. The stretch between the January complaint and the July permit is most of the story the paperwork will tell you.

The record still doesn't say how the fire started or whether anyone was in the four units when it did. For anyone walking the block, the tell will be the work itself: a contractor's dumpster at the curb, four apartments taken back to finishes and rewired, behind a facade that, from the sidewalk, may not look like anything happened at all.