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SFFD chiefs report promotions, academies and surge operations after busy Fleet Week and rescues
Summary
Chief Joanne Hayes White reported promotions, academy scheduling and successful coordination during Fleet Week. Deputy Chief Mark Gonzales reviewed first-alarm fires, multiple cliff and bay rescues and the department's role on the Transbay Overpass response.
Chief Joanne Hayes White told the Fire Commission on Oct. 10 that the department is concluding last fiscal-year closeout work and moving forward with staffing and training: 21 H3-level EMTs with paramedic licenses were promoted to H3-level paramedics, and cross-training continued for H2 firefighters. She said 24 new H3-level EMTs will begin a six-week academy starting Oct. 22 and the department plans for a 120th academy class that will include 42 members drawn from a list of 2,075 eligible candidates.
"We are on track for hiring 24 new employees H3 level 1 EMTs," Chief Hayes White said, and noted the department expects trainings and promotions to be completed "before the holidays."
Deputy Chief Mark Gonzales reviewed recent field incidents: multiple first-alarm fires (3331 Cabrillo, 235 Bayshore and others), a vault fire that required shelter-in-place for a block, several cliff rescues and a bay rescue where Fire Boat 3 helped recover and transport a patient. Gonzales also described the department's role in response planning for the Transbay Overpass cracked-beam incident, and highlighted training deployments, canine hurricane-response assists and the stair-climb fundraiser participation.
Commissioners asked about cliff-rescue prevention, ambulance charges and tracking of EMS encounters involving people without identifiable home addresses. Chief Gonzales and EMS Chief Andy Zannoff explained that more signage and barriers can help but do not prevent all incidents; crews sometimes charge a nominal fee only when there is a transport. Zannoff described a new report column distinguishing encounters with "no identifiable home address," which commissioners noted accounted for roughly 38 percent of EMS encounters in a recent month and requested that the data be shared with homelessness services and broken down by supervisorial district.
Chief Hayes White also updated the commission on station projects (Stations 5 and 16) and said plans for ribbon cuttings and more detailed updates will be provided at future meetings. The commission asked staff to provide additional breakdowns of ADU pre-applications and permit-stage metrics at a later date.
