Article V — FIRE

Sec. 2A.90. Fire Department.

Sec. 2A.91. Fire Department Physician.

Sec. 2A.92. Fire; Ranks in the Department.

Sec. 2A.93. Fire; Deputy Chiefs; Other Executives.

Sec. 2A.94. Fire Marshal.

Sec. 2A.95. Fire Prevention.

Sec. 2A.96. Curtailment of Fireboat Operation.

Sec. 2A.97. Fire Protection and Emergency Medical Services.

The Chief of Department shall have power to send fire boats, apparatus and firefighters outside the City and County of San Francisco for firefighting purposes.

The Commissioners shall by rule and subject to the fiscal provisions of the Charter, have power to create new or additional ranks or positions in the Department which shall be subject to the civil service provisions of the Charter; provided that the Fire Commission subject to the recommendation of the Civil Service Commission and the approval of the Board of Supervisors may declare such new or additional ranks or positions to be exempt from the civil service provisions of the Charter. If the Civil Service Commission disapproves any such exemption, the Board of Supervisors may approve such exemptions by a majority vote of the members thereof. The Fire Commission shall designate the civil service rank from which a non-civil service rank or position shall be appointed. Appointments to any non-civil service rank or position as may be created hereunder shall hold civil service status in the Department in the civil service rank from which they were appointed. In no rank below that of Assistant Chief shall the compensation attached to a non-civil service rank or position equal to exceed the next higher civil service rank or position from which they were appointed and for this purpose the next higher civil service rank above H-2 fireman shall be H-20 lieutenant. If any new or additional rank or position is created pursuant hereto pending the adoption of salary standards for such rank or position, the Fire Commission shall have power to recommend the basic rate of compensation therefor to the Board of Supervisors and said Board of Supervisors shall have the power to fix the rate of compensation for said new rank or position and it shall have the power, and it shall be its duty, without reference or amendment to the annual budget, to amend the annual appropriation ordinance and the annual salary ordinance to include the provisions necessary for paying the basic rate of compensation fixed by said Board of Supervisors for said new rank or position for the then current fiscal year.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

Editor's Note:

Ordinance 243-06, App. 10/14/2006, added a section designated therein as 2A.90 to Article IV of this Chapter. That section ("Boundaries of Police Department District Stations") was codified as Sec. 2A.86.

The Fire Commission shall appoint a Department Physician who shall hold office at its pleasure.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

The several ranks or positions in the Fire Department shall be: Chief of Department; assistant chiefs of department; battalion chiefs; captains; lieutenants; engineers; chiefs operators; firefighters; pilots of fireboats and marine engineers of fireboats; captain, bureau of fire prevention and public safety; lieutenant, Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety; lieutenant, Bureau of Fire Investigation; inspector, Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety; and investigator, Bureau of Fire Investigation, and such other ranks or positions as the Fire Commission may from time to time create as provided for in Section 2A.90.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

The Chief of the Fire Department shall have the power to appoint and to remove, at the Chief’s pleasure, two Deputy Chiefs from among the members of the Department having the rank of Assistant Chief of Department or Battalion Chief,; [1 ] one Deputy Chief from among the Emergency Medical Services or Community Paramedicine members of the Department with a rank of Captain, Section Chief, or above; and a Secretary to the Chief of the Department.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96; amended by Ord. 179-22, File No. 220679, App. 8/4/2022, Eff. 9/4/2022)

CODIFICATION NOTE

1. So in Ord. 179-22.

The Chief of the Fire Department, with the approval of the Fire Commission, may appoint a Fire Marshal and assistants. The Board of Supervisors may empower the Fire Marshal to sell property saved or salvaged from any fire and for which no owner can be found. The Fire Marshal may call upon police officers to assist in the protection or salvaging of property and shall have such other powers and duties as by ordinance may be prescribed relative to the protection of property at fires and the storage of property salvaged therefrom. The Fire Marshal shall have such duties appertaining to the enforcement of laws relative to the storage, sale and use of flammable and combustible liquids, combustible materials and explosives as the Fire Commission by rule, or the Supervisors by ordinance, may prescribe.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

The Chief of Department shall have jurisdiction, under the supervision of the Fire Commission, of the Division of Fire Prevention and Investigation consisting of the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety and the Bureau of Fire Investigation. The Chief of Department shall hold the Assistant Chief of Department, Division of Fire Prevention and Investigation, to the responsibility and authority for enforcement of laws and statutes of the State of California, and the Charter and ordinances of the City and County of San Francisco, pertaining to matters of fire prevention and fire investigation.

The Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety shall inspect all hospitals, schools, places of public assemblage, and other premises regulated by Title 19 of the California Administrative Code, flammable liquid storage facilities, other hazardous occupancies as defined by the Building Code, and all occupied or vacated structures and premises to determine whether or not compliance is being had with statutes, regulations, and ordinances relative to fire prevention, fire protection and firespread control, and the protection of persons and property from fire. It shall enforce said statutes, regulations, and ordinances and shall report violations to other departments having jurisdiction.

The Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety shall examine the application, plans and specifications for the erection, and for alterations or repairs estimated to exceed $1,000 in cost, of any hospital, school, place of public assemblage as defined in the Building Code, other premises

regulated by Title 19 of the California Administrative Code, flammable liquid storage facility, or other hazardous occupancy as defined by the Building Code, subject to the statutes, regulations, and ordinances referred to in this Section, and shall also examine the applications, plans and specifications for all structures and premises insofar as they involve the location of standpipes. The Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety shall by written report, filed with the Director of Public Works, approve such plans and specifications, or report to said Director of Public Works, the particulars wherein noncompliance exists, and upon modification of the application, plans and specifications to comply therewith, the Bureau shall inform said Director of its approval. No permit for alteration or repair exceeding $1,000 in cost of any hospital, school, place of public assemblage as defined in the Building Code, other premises regulated by Title 19 of the California Administrative Code, flammable liquid storage facility, or other hazardous occupancy as defined by the Building Code, or for the erection thereof, or involving the location of standpipes, shall be issued unless said approval is given.

exceeding $1,000 in cost of any hospital, school, place of public assemblage as defined in the Building Code, other premises regulated by Title 19 of the California Administrative Code, flammable liquid storage facility, or other hazardous occupancy as defined by the Building Code, or for the erection thereof, or involving the location of standpipes, shall be issued unless said approval is given.

Any structure or premises as provided in this Section wherein there exists any violation of statutes, regulations, or ordinances referred to in this Section, or which is maintained or used in such manner as to endanger persons or property by hazard or fire, explosion or panic and any structure or premises as provided in this Section hereafter constructed, altered or repaired in violation of said statutes, regulations, or ordinances, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance, and it shall be the duty of the Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety to prosecute abatement proceedings.

The Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety shall detail to the Department of Public Works such personnel as necessary to review and check plans relative to requirements of the Fire Code and shall report any particulars of noncompliance to the Director.

The Fire Department shall make recommendations to the Director of Public Works for possible revisions to the Building Code and Housing Code on matters of fire safety.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

In the event that the services of any pilot, marine engineer or marine fireman holding permanent civil service status as such, hereinafter referred to as the said member, are no longer required in connection with fireboat operation due to curtailment of such operation by the City and County of San Francisco or due to the conversion from steam fireboats to motorized fireboats, the said member on the basis of seniority in rank may be reassigned to duties of a position of some other rank in the Fire Department in which a vacancy in a permanent position exists and not carrying a higher compensation than the compensation of the rank previously held by said member, as the Chief of Department, with the approval of the Fire Commission, shall determine are within the said member's ability to perform, below the rank of lieutenant; provided, however, said member shall not be eligible for promotional examination in the Fire Department. Upon such reassignment the said member shall be declared to be permanently appointed to such new rank as if appointed thereto after examination and certification from a list of eligibles under the civil service provisions of the Charter, and said member shall have seniority therein from date of such reassignment and he or she shall receive the same rate of pay as would be applicable to any other member of such new rank having the same number of years of service in the Department. If no vacancy in a permanent position exists to which immediate reassignment may be made as indicated above, then such member shall be laid off from his or her position subject to reassignment as indicated above when such a vacancy does occur.

If at any time after such reassignment the said member's original position, or a similar position becomes available on fireboats under jurisdiction of the San Francisco Fire Department, the said member shall be assigned to such position in accordance with his or her seniority in rank in the Department, preference in such assignment being given to the said member having the greatest seniority. Upon such assignment the said member shall

be declared to be reappointed to the rank said member held at the time he or she was transferred from such fireboat service and shall be restored to all the civil services rights and privileges appurtenant thereto, including such additional rights and privileges as may have accrued by reason of added seniority.

Nothing in this Section shall affect the said members pension and retirement rights and privileges.

(Added by Ord. 320-96, App. 8/8/96)

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Fire Department shall maintain and operate neighborhood firehouses and emergency apparatus at the same location and to the same extent as existed on January 1, 2004, as is listed below.

Each such firehouse shall remain open 24 hours a day, and the emergency apparatus located at each firehouse shall be adequately staffed so as to be able to respond to a fire, medical or other emergency 24 hours a day. The Fire Department shall not close, abandon or consolidate any existing firehouse, or provide a level of service at that firehouse or for the apparatus within that firehouse, lower than that existing as of January 1, 2004, except as specified below.

In addition to the apparatus housed within each neighborhood firehouse as of January 1, 2004, as listed above, the Fire Department shall maintain and operate 24 hours per day the following: an arson/fire investigation unit; no fewer than four ambulances; and four Rescue Captains (Medical Supervisors). The Chief of the Department shall determine which station will house those units.

The Fire Department, with the concurrence of the Fire Commission and subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors, may establish such additional firehouses as it deems necessary to meet the safety needs of the residents of the City and County of San Francisco. The Fire Department may relocate apparatus from one neighborhood firehouse to another only if the Chief, with the concurrence of the Fire Commission and approval by the Board of Supervisors, declares doing so is necessary to meet the safety needs of the citizenry and will not prevent servicing that neighborhood 24 hours a day. In no event may the Fire Department remove apparatus from a neighborhood firehouse if doing so prevents that firehouse from responding to fires and medical emergency calls from that location 24 hours a day.

A neighborhood firehouse listed above may be closed only for unsafe structural conditions, or if necessary to retrofit or renovate the building, or if it has been replaced by a new firehouse in that same neighborhood. Such closure must be recommended by the Fire Department, concurred in by the Fire Commission, and approved by the Board of Supervisors, and must be accompanied by a detailed plan for restoring adequate services to the neighborhood served by that firehouse as soon as possible.

Nothing in this Section shall prevent the Fire Department from temporarily closing a firehouse and moving the apparatus within it if that firehouse poses an immediate danger to public safety, provided that the Department shall seek the concurrence of the Fire Commission and the approval of the Board of Supervisors as soon as is reasonably possible.

Nothing in this provision shall diminish, interfere with or otherwise alter the Mayor's authority under Article III, Section 3.100(13)* of the Charter.

(Added by Proposition F, 11/8/2005)

* Editor's Note:

Charter Sec. 3.100(13) was redesignated as 3.100(14) by Proposition C, adopted at the November 2, 2010 election.