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Fire Commission presses department for formal response to civil grand jury inspection report
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Summary
The San Francisco Fire Commission set a timeframe for the departmentto respond to a civil grand jury report on residential fire inspections, asked for implementation details and proposed a joint task force with the Department of Building Inspection to improve coordination and transparency.
The San Francisco Fire Commission on Aug. 24 pressed the San Francisco Fire Department to provide a detailed response to a civil grand jury report titled "Fire safety inspections in San Francisco, a tale of two departments." Commissioners said the report raised concerns about inspection practices, complaint tracking and transparency and set a formal response deadline to the Board of Supervisors of Sept. 16.
Vice President Ken Cleveland opened the discussion by calling the report "disturbing" and asking the department to identify the Fire Safety Task Force's top recommendations and the status of their implementation. "I have a slew of questions," Cleveland said, and asked that the chief and fire marshal provide a presentation at the Sept. 14 commission meeting.
Chief Joanne Hayes White told commissioners staff will provide a full presentation on Sept. 14 and said the department could deliver a working draft of its narrative response by Sept. 2. "We will have a narrative to respond," Hayes White said, adding that she had reviewed a working draft and that some recommendations are already in progress.
Fire Marshal Dan DiCocio described the departmentinspection workflow and training updates. He said engine and truck companies perform annual inspections for residential buildings with nine or more units (R2 classification in SFFD practice) and that the departmenthas an annual list of roughly 4,300 such buildings. DiCocio said SFFD is updating an R1/R2 training manual, video-recording demonstration inspections and establishing more standardized documentation and follow-up procedures.
Department staff reported a high completion rate for assigned R2 inspections: about 94% of assigned R2s had been inspected in the cited review period, with the remaining 6% split between "open" and "pending" cases. Commissioners pressed staff on the 6% that remain and on weekend inspection strategies to reach residents at home.
Several commissioners urged closer coordination with the Department of Building Inspection (DBI). Commissioner Nakagio and others endorsed a targeted task force to examine inspection overlap and coordination between SFFD and DBI; the commission asked staff to propose how such a task force would operate and to include potential budget impacts in the departmentresponse.
Hayes White also flagged concerns with the civil grand jury process: she said the chief and the fire marshal were not interviewed during the grand jury study and that additional departmental context will be supplied in the written response.
Next steps: the commission will receive a full presentation from SFFD on Sept. 14 and expect a working draft of the response by Sept. 2. Commissioners requested that the department's narrative include a budget estimate for any recommendations that would require additional staff.
