Chief of Department Janine Nicholson reported budget, staffing and operational updates to the Fire Commission on Aug. 14 and Deputy Chief Vic Worsch presented the July operations summary, including EMS data and a drill at the new Chase Center arena.

Nicholson said the recently adopted city budget adds positions for department priorities: five EMS‑6 paramedic captain positions (including one supervisory slot), a health/safety/wellness battalion chief, two civilian positions (one for EMS billing and one for housing tracking and special projects), three assistant fire marshal positions and three inspectors for the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Investigation. She said the prevention positions are financed by plan‑check and permit fees and that three new hose tenders were procured (five total reported) — each tender is fully equipped and budgeted at about $1 million.

The chief also announced organizational changes: a new Assistant Deputy Chief of Support Services, Dawn DeWitt, joined the department and the department remains engaged with the mayor's office and other agencies on grants, emergency planning, Fleet Week and special events.

Deputy Chief Vic Worsch described operational highlights: 13 working fires during the reporting period, multiple rescues (including cliff and surf rescues, bay rescues and a high‑angle rescue to free four window washers 10 floors up), an SFO roof HVAC fire requiring an extended hose lead and safe extinguishment and McLaren Park wildfires linked to homeless‑camp cooking.

Chase Center drill and response times
Worsch and Nicholson described a large multi‑agency drill at Chase Center. Units responded with lights on but no sirens; the first engine arrived “in under 4 minutes,” Worsch said, while other units were delayed substantially — the first medic arrived about 24 minutes into the drill in the scenario recorded. The department identified traffic congestion and constrained street geometry as significant barriers to timely arrival of full response assignments and said more unannounced drills are planned to test alternate routing and coordination with SFMTA and event planners.

EMS, frequent callers and Narcan
Nicholson and Worsch discussed EMS6, a pilot targeting frequent 911 callers. Worsch reported the total number of frequent 911 callers meeting reporting criteria is 640 and the total number of calls generated by high‑frequency callers was 1,047 in the reporting period; “95% of encounters were with high frequency users,” the deputy chief said. Commissioners discussed the predominance of homeless individuals among EMS6 encounters and the implications for budgeting and program naming.

Narcan (naloxone) administration was included in the EMS statistics; commissioners noted a near 100% increase in naloxone administrations compared with the previous July and urged that these data be used in ongoing discussions with the Department of Public Health and hospital partners.

Ambulance staging, hospital offload and time on task
Commissioners asked about ambulance time at hospitals and off‑load delays. Nicholson said the department tracks time on task and that it has risen about 25% over several years; she agreed to pursue more precise tracking of time that ambulances spend at hospitals to support discussions with DPH and hospital operators.

Other items
Nicholson said new city construction permitted after Jan. 1, 2020 will likely not include natural gas lines in city‑owned buildings and noted continuing work on animal sheltering, training, the fire department operations center and cross‑training among battalions and inspectors. Worsch said the department has equipped apparatus with personal radiation detectors and is coordinating PG&E public‑safety power‑shutdown planning and elevator vendor triage plans for a potential power outage.

No formal commission votes were taken on the operational reports; commissioners asked for follow‑up materials including the Chase Center drill report, additional visuals for the hose tender procurement and more detailed EMS breakdowns.