San Francisco Fire Department

Operational area
Country	United States
State	California
City	San Francisco
Agency overview[1]
Established	1866
Annual calls	135,091 (2015)
Employees	1,449 (2012)
Annual budget	$326,072,813 (2012)
Staffing	Career
Fire chief	Joanne Hayes-White
EMS level	ALS & BLS
IAFF	798
Facilities and equipment[2]
Divisions	2
Battalions	9
Stations	45
Engines	44
Trucks	20
Ambulances	16 ALS
Tenders	1
HAZMAT	1
USAR	1
Airport crash	4
Wildland	4 - Mini-Pumpers
Fireboats	3
Website
Official website
IAFF website

The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) provides fire and emergency medical services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.^[3][4] The San Francisco Fire Department, along with the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff's Department, serves an estimated population of 1.4 million people, which includes the approximately 850,000 citizens residing in the 47.5 square miles (123 km²) of San Francisco (including Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the San Francisco International Airport, and the Presidio of San Francisco/Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

History[edit]

Volunteer companies were first formed in the city in 1850, and a paid staff established in 1866. In 1906, the department was considered on a par with those of the larger cities on the East Coast, but found itself reduced to fighting the fire of 1906 in the quake aftermath with axes and shovels, as most of the city's water mains were broken and cisterns drained. Fire Chief Dennis T. Sullivan suffered mortal wounds in his home by a falling chimney early in the disaster and subsequently died in the hospital.

Operations[edit]

Fireboats[edit]

The Phoenix docked at Pier ​22 ¹⁄₂.

The SFFD has three fireboats that are docked at Pier ​22 ¹⁄₂. Fireboat 1, the Phoenix, was constructed in 1954 and is fitted with three deck monitors, a water town and two under pier monitors.^[5] Fireboat 2, the Guardian, was constructed in 1950 and is the oldest fireboat in the fleet.^[6] Both boats are 89-foot (27 m) and outfitted with two 500 horsepower (370 kW) engines giving them top speeds of 12.5 knots (14.4 mph; 23.2 km/h) (Guardian) and 15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h) (Phoenix). A third new 85-foot fireboat (Fireboat 3) was christened the St. Francis in October 2016.^[7][8][9]

Fire Stations and Apparatus[edit]

Fireboat Guardian stands on alert status near the Bay Bridge.

SFFD Truck 3 operating at a fire in the Tenderloin.

The former Fire Station # 1, located on Howard Street

SFFD Engine 16, quartered in the Marina District

Two SFFD truck companies at the scene of a 4th-alarm fire on 41st Ave. in the Sunset District

Below is a full listing of all fire station and company locations in the City & County of San Francisco according to division and battalion.^[10]

There are also three SFFD-operated fire stations located at the San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County.

SFO Stations[edit]

All apparatus at SFO go by the 'Rescue' call sign, whether Engine, Truck, ARFF Crash, Medic Unit, or Command SUV.

Disbanded fire companies[edit]

Throughout the history of the San Francisco Fire Department there have been several fire companies which have been closed due to budget cuts and the restructuring of engine company numbers in 1972–1973.

• Engine Company 27 (356 7th St.): Disbanded July 1, 1976


• Engine Company 30 (1300 4th St.): Disbanded July 1, 1976


• Engine Company 45 (1348 45th Ave.): Disbanded September 26, 1972


• Engine Company 46 (441 12th Ave.): Disbanded May 16, 1972


• Engine Company 47 (499 41st Ave.): Disbanded May 25, 1973


• Engine Company 49 (2155 18th Ave.): Disbanded July 20, 1972


• Truck Company 20 (285 Olympia Way: Disbanded September 30, 1980


• Division 1 (530 Sansome St.): Disbanded January 2, 2002


• Battalion 5 (1443 Grove St.): August 30, 2003, Reinstated January 4, 2017


• Battalion 11 (798 Wisconsin St.): Disbanded July 1, 1970


• Salvage Company 1 (356 7th St.): Disbanded 1980


• Salvage Company 2 (115 Drumm St.): Disbanded 1975


• Salvage Company 3 (441 12th Ave.): Disbanded 1977


• Salvage Company 4 (299 Vermont St.): Disbanded 1986

In popular culture[edit]

San Francisco Fire Station 12 fire truck with Grateful Dead–inspired logo sticker

• The SFFD was the responding fire department to a major high-rise fire disaster in the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. The film cast many actual firefighters from the department and used many actual SFFD fire trucks during the filming. Fire Station 38 was also shown in the filming. The exterior shots were done at the Bank of America Building, 555 California.


• Actor Steve McQueen was given a San Francisco Fire Department Honorary Battalion Chief badge #33 with ID in recognition for his accurate portrayal of San Francisco Battalion Fire Chief Mike O'Halloran.


• The SFFD was also used in the Dirty Harry film series, particularly Rescue Squad 2 in Dirty Harry.


• When a veteran SFFD firefighter is killed and Adrian Monk is blinded in a mysterious attack at a firehouse in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing", Monk must rely on his other senses to solve the bizarre case. In the course of the episode, he finds that the killer came to the firehouse to steal a fireman's coat and even finds that the man who blinded him had just beforehand killed a woman a few blocks away and set fire to her house (that fire was the one the engine company had been responding to when the murder at the firehouse took place). The depicted fire station, Fire Station 53, is a fictitious station. The exterior of the station was represented by Fire Station 1 of the Los Angeles Fire Department.


• In the Monk novel series by Lee Goldberg, Joe Cochran, Natalie Teeger's occasional lover, is an SFFD firefighter, making appearances in the novels Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse, Mr. Monk and the Two Assistants, and Mr. Monk in Outer Space.


• The SFFD was featured in two Emergency! television movies in 1978 and 1979, where L.A. County firefighter/paramedics Gage and DeSoto run calls with the firefighters of Rescue Squad 2.


• The NBC Television show Trauma followed the fictional lives of SFFD paramedics, EMTs and flight medics.


• The department is featured in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. After San Francisco City Hall is set ablaze by the villainous Max Zorin in an attempt to kill Bond, the SFFD arrives on scene and assists Roger Moore's character in escaping the burning building and then ultimately "borrows" a SFFD ladder truck in order to outrun the police officers chasing him on the suspicion that his character set the blaze.


• The CBS television series Rescue 911's episode #107 the 4th segment featured the San Francisco Fire Department responding to an apartment fire and in one of the scenes, sparks shoot over a firetruck from a broken wire from a powerline. The station was Station #9, built in 1915.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Firefighting in San Francisco.

• San Francisco Fire Department official website


• San Francisco Fire Museum


• History of the San Francisco Fire Department at the SF Museum


• SFFD Fire Reserve website

Coordinates: 37°47′N 122°25′W / 37.783°N 122.417°W / 37.783; -122.417