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Fire Commission approves 2025 fire code, affirms sprinkler retrofit timetable amid resident protests
Summary
After more than 30 minutes of public comment from owners and residents of older high‑rise buildings raising cost and displacement concerns, the San Francisco Fire Commission voted to approve the 2025 San Francisco Fire Code and recommend it to the Board of Supervisors, keeping a phased sprinkler compliance schedule that largely follows state and international codes with a stated completion target of 2035.
The San Francisco Fire Commission voted Nov. 12 to approve the department’s proposed 2025 San Francisco Fire Code and forward it to the Board of Supervisors, maintaining a phased timetable for retrofitting sprinklers in certain existing high‑rise buildings while emphasizing the fire marshal’s ability to grant exemptions, alternate methods and time extensions.
Dozens of residents and building representatives urged the commission to modify or delay enforcement of a sprinkler retrofitting requirement they said was adopted without adequate notice and would impose severe financial hardship. "Should this mandate go into force, this would require many buildings to install sprinklers in each individual unit," said Tom Gage, a resident and board member of a 58‑unit Chestnut Street building, who described potential costs he estimated at more than $2 million for his building and warned that elderly and medically dependent residents might be displaced.
Advocates for the requirement and union…
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