SF Firefighters are Unequipped for Large Earthquakes!

SF Firefighters are Unequipped for Large Earthquakes!
We need a water supply system that protects all San Franciscans.

Currently, 2/3 of SF uses the Westside Potable Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS). The EFWS is severely underprepared for earthquakes due to its low pressure, low resiliance, and interaction with multiple fault lines.

A select few are privlaged with the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS), which is specifically designed to function after major seismic events. The AWSS has what the EFWS does not:

- Post-earthquake firefighting water supply

- Seismically resilient pipe and hydrant system that

- Virtually unlimited water supply

- Instantaneously access at the hydrant

- High-pressure stream (no pump engine needed on site)

All of these are necessary to fight post-earthquake fires we are currently vulnerable to.

A group of 66 firefighters has written a letter to the city to demand an expansion of the AWSS. Sign Journalist John Crabtree's addition below to support their cause.
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To the San Francisco Supervisors:*
Dear San Francisco Supervisors,

As retired San Francisco Fire Department Chief Officers, Captains, Lieutenants, and Firefighters, we believe that it is our responsibility to emphatically state the following in the interest of public safety:

It is completely irrational to assume that drinking water from municipal reservoirs will be adequate to reliably supply a high-pressure, high-volume citywide hydrant system, like the Auxiliary Water Supply System, for fighting multiple, simultaneous fires following a major Bay Area earthquake.

The Hetch-Hetchy drinking water system traverses 167 miles from the Sierras, crosses three major Bay Area earthquake faults, and then closely parallels the San Andreas Fault for 25 miles along the Peninsula, before reaching the City’s three terminal reservoirs. To assume that it will remain completely intact following a M7.9 earthquake of unknowable epicenter or duration is a matter of mere conjecture. The reliability of the water supplied to the SFFD to fight post-earthquake fires cannot be left to chance. Given the realities of fighting urban conflagrations, implementation of the SFPUC’s misguided “Potable EFWS” (drinking water) plan may very well lead to the destruction by fire of entire San Francisco neighborhoods.

Based on our combined 2,000 years of professional firefighting experience, we must clearly state that the only practical solution for supplying a citywide high-pressure hydrant system, when a multitude of post-earthquake fires must be fought, is to use the inexhaustible supply of saltwater that is readily available on three sides of the city. This will require the construction of new high-pressure saltwater pump stations at the northern end of Ocean Beach and at Hunters Point. Following a major earthquake it will be essential to have independent and unlimited water sources for firefighting available in all four quadrants of the City. Therefore, an additional high-pressure pump station at Lake Merced, which contains over one billion gallons of non-potable water, will complete the water supply requirements for an interconnected citywide expansion of the existing high-pressure hydrant system into all San Francisco neighborhoods.

These new pump stations are the only means by which an inexhaustible water supply can be provided to the expanded hydrant system called for by the Civil Grand Jury’s 2019 report. Moreover, this will leave the municipal water supply in the City’s reservoirs, where it must be maintained, available for the critically important drinking and sanitation needs of the City’s residents following a major earthquake.

Mario Trevino, Chief of Department, SFFD, retired — Harold Gamble, Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — Frank Cardinale, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — Paul Chin, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — Thomas W. Doudiet, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired —Mark Kearney, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — Michael Morris, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — Brendan O’Leary, Assistant Deputy Chief, SFFD, retired — James Barden, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — Frank T. Blackburn, Division Chief, SFFD, retired (R.I.P.) — Robert Boudoures, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — James Cavellini, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — Alberto DaChuna, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — John S. Peoples, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — William Richardson, Division Chief, SFFD, retired — James Blake, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Michael Castignola, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Ted Corporandy, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Paul Crawford, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Michael Cunnie, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Franklin H. Dunn, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Lawrence Giovacchini, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Elliott Kamler, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired (R.I.P) — James Lambrechts, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Michael McKinley, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Gary Leal, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — John A. Murphy, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Jack Norton, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Michael Ryan, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Dominic Spinetta, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Frank Treanor, Battalion Chief, SFFD, retired — Mario Ballard, Captain, SFFD, retired — Carl Champion, Captain, SFFD, retired — James Connors, Captain, SFFD, retired — Steven Green, Captain, SFFD, retired — James Lee, Captain, SFFD, retired — Thomas Murray, Captain, SFFD, retired — Timothy O’ Brien, Captain, SFFD, retired — James J. O’Connor, Captain, SFFD, retired — Jack O’Leary, Captain, SFFD, retired — Reid Sheridan, Captain, SFFD, retired — William Shore, Captain, SFFD, retired — Michael A. Walsh, Captain, SFFD, retired — John Carvajal, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — Joe Collins, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — William Emde, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — Mark L. Johnson, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — Robert G. McDill, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — James H. Neil, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — Kenneth H. Owen, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — James Riley, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — George Saribalis, Lieutenant, SFFD, retired — Patrick G. Ryan, Inspector, SFFD, retired — Terry Wallace, Inspector, SFFD, retired — James Mason, Chief’s Aide, SFFD, retired — Charles L. Terry, Chief’s Aide, SFFD, retired — Ray Batz, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Michael Belcher, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Michael Coleman, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Michael Cuddy, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Richard J. Gibson, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Anthony Marelich, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Al Markel, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — Dennis Martino, Firefighter, SFFD, retired (R.I.P.) — Steve O’Neill, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — John B. Skance, Firefighter, SFFD, retired — W. Urie Walsh, Firefighter, SFFD, retired
We, the undersigned, wholeheartedly support the spirit, tenor and facts of the above letter signed by 66 courageous retired SFFD Chief Officers, Captains, Lieutenants, and Firefighters and affix our signatures of endorsement to the conclusions drawn therein.

Furthermore, we recognize that the circumstances and challenges in the City and County of San Francisco relating to post-earthquake firefighting water supply (AWSS) and the management thereof by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) remain virtually unchanged from when the aforementioned retired SFFD firefighters first penned this letter.

We hereby resolve to continue the fight that was carried by those firefighters up until today. We renew their call for a citywide expansion of AWSS utilizing the inexhaustible supply of San Francisco Bay & Pacific Ocean saltwater that is readily available on three sides of the City.

Moreover, we concur with their conclusion that the implementation of the SFPUC’s misguided “Potable EFWS” (drinking water) plan will leave the city, its neighborhoods and the people who live and work here vulnerable to destruction and death from the fires and conflagrations that will occur after a major earthquake.

Therefore we, the undersigned, call upon the City and County of San Francisco to abandon the “Westside Potable Emergency Firefighting Water System” proposal currently under consideration (and appeal) as well as similar plans in earlier planning stages for other unprotected neighborhoods and to set the city firmly on a path to expanding true AWSS protection across the entirety of San Francisco.

John Crabtree, resident, District 4

Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods – Deborah Murphy, President

Jennifer Dougherty, resident, District 4


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