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Retired firefighters' open letter, coalition speaker urge SFPUC to reconsider plan for post‑quake fire suppression water use
Summary
A member of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods recounted an open letter from retired San Francisco firefighters criticizing an SFPUC plan to use drinking water supplies for post‑earthquake firestorms, urging the commission to ensure water reliability for firefighting.
During general public comment at the March 26 SFPUC meeting, Eileen Vulcan of the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, speaking on her own behalf, urged the commission to reconsider parts of the SFPUC’s FPESWS Drinking Water Plan and warned that relying on the retail drinking water supply for post‑earthquake firefighting could threaten neighborhood safety.
Vulcan summarized an open letter originally circulated in August 2021 and signed by 68 retired San Francisco Fire Department chief officers, captains, lieutenants and firefighters that argued the city’s drinking water supply should not be relied upon for fighting post‑earthquake conflagrations on the West Side. “The reliability of the water supply to the SFFD to fight post earthquake fires cannot be left to chance,” Vulcan said, summarizing the letter.
She told commissioners that, given “the realities of fighting urban conflagrations,” implementing the SFPUC’s FPESWS Drinking Water Plan could “very well lead to the destruction by fire of entire San Francisco neighborhoods.” That comment was made during the public comment period; no formal action or staff response is recorded in the meeting minutes for this item.
The remarks were delivered as public comment and did not trigger a vote or formal direction in the transcript. The commission did not record a staff reply on the record during the public comment portion shown in the transcript.
