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Residents urge changes after alarm‑testing announcements and warn park closures may block engines
Summary
Two residents told the Fire Commission that intercom announcements at a large Rincon Center complex instructing occupants to "ignore alarms" during testing risk resident safety, and that Friday afternoon park closures near the Chain of Lakes can impede engine access; both called for department intervention.
During general public comment on April 27, two speakers raised safety concerns for the Fire Commission.
Richard Rothman, who said he lives in the Outer Richmond near Station 34, thanked the department for earlier care and raised a traffic and access concern: he said Friday afternoon closures and heavy congestion around the Chain of Lakes sometimes back traffic up to Fulton Street and could slow Engine 34 and other apparatus. Rothman asked the commission to ask park managers to consider shifting the JFK closure time from noon to 6 p.m. on Fridays so engines could cross the park when needed.
David Osgood, representing the Rincon Center Tenants Association, said building management repeatedly broadcasts intercom messages instructing 400–500 residents to "ignore any alarms" during alarm testing elsewhere in the complex. Osgood said residents have returned to units without receiving an "all‑clear" and that the repeated announcements create the risk that occupants will ignore a real alarm. To illustrate, he played a recorded announcement saying, "We will be conducting a test of the fire alarm system... Please have your attention, please." Osgood asked the commission to require building managers to stop instructing residents to ignore alarms when testing will not activate in‑unit alarms and to adopt clearer procedures for notifying occupants.
The commission did not record an immediate directive at the meeting but accepted the comments as part of the public record and may follow up with department staff for any necessary enforcement or guidance to building managers.
