SFFD details budget cuts, reassigns overdose follow‑up to EMS 6 and urges action on lithium‑ion storage

Chief of Department Dean Crispin told the San Francisco Fire Commission on July 23 that the City and County of San Francisco’s FY2025 budget was adopted after the Board of Supervisors closed an $800 million gap and that the Fire Department had absorbed cuts while remaining operational.

"The City and County of San Francisco budget of $15,900,000,000 has been approved by the supervisors. We closed an $800,000,000 gap. Everyone shared the pain, including the San Francisco fire department," Chief Crispin said.

The chief described concrete staffing and unit changes: the department lost three civilian positions and deactivated Quick Response Vehicle 1 and EMS 6 Delta. He also detailed a reorganization of community paramedicine to integrate with the neighborhood street teams and to free suppression units to work more closely with paramedics.

"Our community paramedicine division handles over 20,000 calls per year," Crispin said. He said the department will reassign community paramedic captains to neighborhood street teams, allocate three community paramedic captains per day to work with street conductors, and publish a utilization guide in August so suppression crews understand how to interact with community paramedicine.

Crispin said the city’s SORT (street overdose response team) has been demobilized…