Indicator PI.7.e Location of fire stations
| San Francisco fire stations | |
|---|---|
|
Station
number
| Street address |
| 1 | 676 Howard Street at 3rd Street |
| 2 | 1340 Powell Street at Broadway |
| 3 | 1067 Post Street at Polk Street |
| 5 | 1301 Turk Street at Webster Street |
| 6 | 135 Sanchez Street at Henry Street |
| 7 | 2300 Folsom Street at 19th Street |
| 8 | 36 Bluxome Street at 4th Street |
| 9 | 2245 Jerrold Avenue at Napolean Street |
| 10 | 655 Presidio Avenue at California Street |
| 11 | 3380 26th Street at Church Street |
| 12 | 1145 Stanyan Street at Grattan Street |
| 13 | 530 Sansome Street at Washington Street |
| 14 | 551 26th Avenue at Geary Boulevard |
| 15 | 1000 Ocean Avenue at Phelan Avenue |
| 16 | 2251 Greenwich Street at Fillmore Street |
| 17 | 1295 Shafter Avenue at Ingalls Street |
| 18 | 1935 32nd Avenue at Pacheco Street |
| 19 | 390 Buckingham Way at Winston Street |
| 20 | 285 Olympia Way at Clarendon Avenue |
| 21 | 1443 Grove Street at Broderick Street |
| 22 | 1290 16th Avenue at Irving Street |
| 23 | 1348 45th Avenue at Judah Street |
| 24 | 100 Hoffman Avenue at Alvarado Street |
| 25 | 3305 3rd Street at Cargo Way |
| 26 | 80 Digby Street at Addison Street |
| 28 | 1814 Stockton Street at Vallejo Street |
| 29 | 299 Vermont Street at 16th Street |
| 31 | 441 12th Avenue at Geary Boulevard |
| 32 | 194 Park Street at Holly Park Circle |
| 33 | 8 Capital Avenue at Broad Street |
| 34 | 499 41st Avenue at Geary Boulevard |
| 35 | Pier 22½, The Embarcadero at Harrison Street |
| 36 | 109 Oak Street at Franklin Street |
| 37 | 798 Wisconsin Street at 22nd Street |
| 38 | 2150 California Street at Laguna Street |
| 39 | 1091 Portola Drive at Miraloma Drive |
| 40 | 2155 18th Avenue at Santiago Street |
| 41 | 1325 Leavenworth Street at Jackson Street |
| 42 | 2430 San Bruno Avenue at Silver Avenue |
| 43 | 720 Moscow Street at France Avenue |
| 44 | 1298 Girard Street at Wilde Avenue |
| 48 | Building 157, Avenue D at 10th Street, Treasure Island |
| N/A | Presidio Fire Dept Lincoln Blvd & Graham St |
| Airport 1 | Building #650, West Field Road at SFO Airport |
| Airport 2 | Building #1064, North Access Road at SFO Airport |
| Airport 3 | Building #12, South Area Drive at SFO Airport |
Data Source
List of fire stations obtained from San Francisco Fire Department and the Presidio Fire Department, 2009.
Map prepared by City and County of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, Environmental Health Section using ArcGIS software.
For maps displaying 5 minute response times from SF fire station, please see SF Controller's April 28, 2004 Review of the San Francisco Fire-EMS System Report. Accessed online on May 14, 2008: http://www.sfcontroller.org/index.aspx?page=122
http://www.thehdmt.org/etc/Geographic_Units_of_Analysis.pdf
Explanation and Limitations
The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) provides protection to approximately 725,000 citizens residing in the 47.5 square miles of San Francisco. During the business day, this number increases to approximately 1.2 million people. SFFD forces consist of approximately 1,700 firefighting and emergency medical field personnel, 42 engine companies, 18 truck companies, 18 ambulances, two rescue squads, two fireboats, and several other specialized units. The companies are deployed into three divisions, which are further divided into ten battalions. A separate division of the Department is comprised of three firefighting companies and located at San Francisco International Airport.
When a fire alarm is struck, the SFFD activates a quick response, sending a massive amount of equipment and firefighters to a typical room and contents fire, with the goal being to confine and extinguish the blaze as rapidly as possibly. This large response is due to the number of wooden structures in earthquake-prone San Francisco, and the density of structures in a city block. A small fire can quickly spread into a multi-structure fire in matter of minutes.
Overview -- Response Times
The geographic distribution of fire stations throughout a city impacts the rate at which firefighters and emergency responders may respond to fires and medical emergencies at the neighborhood level. Rapid response by firefighters is one of many factors influencing the severity of injury (and/or number of deaths) suffered from a fire or emergency. Response times impact the size of the fire, the length of time victims are exposed to smoke inhalation and/or degree of burns, and the severity and breadth of fire damage to the property.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) develops, publishes and disseminates codes and standards designed to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. NFPA 1710 is a voluntary standard for fire station and emergency responders that states that starting when units acknowledge notification of an emergency (i.e. when they first receive the call), first arriving engine companies should respond within 5 minutes for 90% of all fire suppression incidents. Emergency medical responders should also respond within 5 minutes for 90% of all emergency medical incidents. Full Alarm Assignment and Advanced Life Support Units are expected to respond within 9 minutes of all incidents. (Appendix B, Page 1, SF Controller's Report:http://www.sfcontroller.org/index.aspx?page=122. The City and County of San Francisco has adopted this standard as its goal for fire station and emergency medical response times.
In 2004, at the request of the Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Controller's Office conducted a review of San Francisco Fire Department and Emergency Responder systems. This report made numerous recommendations for how the City could save on extraneous costs and still provide needed fire departments. Some of the report findings include:
- San Francisco has more fire stations per square mile than any comparable community¦. Some of these fire stations make fewer than three responses per day -- with a probability that at least one is a medical call and one a false alarm. In 2003, San Francisco had 309 actual "working fires" and less than 11% of all responses were fire or smoke-related. The controller's office reviewed coverage areas and travel times from nearby stations and believed that some stations could be removed immediately from service, or have the number of vehicles and staff reduced without harm to response times.
- Within fire suppression calls for service, approximately one fourth are for street box alarms--over 20,000 responses per year citywide. However, 85% of those alarms are false, and of the ones that are not false, fully 80% are calls for medical attention. This means that a truck and an engine, with nine people total, at a minimum cost of approximately $500 per hour, are responding to alarms that are almost always false and are fire-related only 3% of the time.
- Since 61% or more of Fire calls are medical in nature, [analysis of fire station costs] should also be evaluated in the larger picture of medical care in San Francisco. A fire station costs between $2.0 million and $5.4 million annually to pay for staff alone. "¦some stations have only two calls per day and 12 stations have five or fewer calls per day. At the same time, there are city health clinics that see 54 patient visits on average per day and cost an average $2.5 million annually and these services are at risk for being cut for budget purposes. We should not allow the placement of this health care component in the Fire Department to stop us from considering and evaluating it as part of the whole." (page 13)
April 28, 2004 SF Controller's Report. Accessed online on May 14, 2008: http://www.sfcontroller.org/index.aspx?page=122
Overview -- Fire Risk
Response times are just one aspect of overall fire risk in neighborhoods. Increased risk of fire increases the risk of fire-related injury or death. In the United States, the majority of fire-related deaths and injuries occur in residential structures, including individual and multi-family homes and apartment buildings. Between 1983 and 1990, an average of 74 percent of all fire deaths occurred in residential fires, as did an average of 66 percent of all fire injuries. [Accessed online on May 14, 2008: https://www.usfa.dhs.gov/applications/publications/ ] According to the USFA, the leading causes of residential fires are cooking, heating, smoking, and arson. Heating fires are more common in single family homes, particularly those with fire places, than in apartment buildings where heating systems are professionally maintained. However as noted by the USFA, a higher proportion of smoke alarms did not operate in apartments than in one- and two-family homes. Fires caused by smoking tend to occur because people fall asleep in bed smoking or ignition occurs on upholstered furniture.
In 1997, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) conducted a review of socioeconomic factors and risk of fire. The review found that "virtually every study of socioeconomic characteristics has shown that lower levels of income are either directly or indirectly tied to an increased risk of fire." [FEMA. Socioeconomic Factors and the Incidence of Fire. June 1997. Accessed online on May 24, 2008: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/statistics/reports/socio.shtm ] [See also http://www.sustainable-design.ie/fire/socio.pdf ] The review also found that African American and American Indian children are nearly twice as likely to die in a fire than white or Asian children. Another federal study found that persons under 15 and over 65 accounted for 46% of fire deaths and 25% of fire injuries. Children under age 5 are 40% more likely to die in a fire than the general population. [USFA. A Profile of Fire in the U.S.: 1992-2001. October 2004. Accessed online on May 14, 2008: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-293-508.pdf ]
One study in Dallas, Texas found that there was a 20-fold difference in risk of fire between persons with highest incomes and lowest incomes. The study also found that "the high rate of injuries related to house fires in census tracts with low median incomes was due to both a higher rate of fires and a higher rate of injuries once a fire had occurred." [Istre, GR, etal. NEJM 2001;344:1911-6] Research from New York City in the 1970s demonstrates how cuts to fire stations in poor minority communities with overcrowded, aged housing triggered an epidemic of fires. Indirectly, the fires resulted in neighborhood abandonment, harming communities both physically and socially and negatively affecting health outcomes including drug use and tuberculosis rates.
Over the past several decades, fire prevention methods such as more widespread distribution and use of smoke detectors and sprinkler systems, building code enforcement, and flame-retardant mattresses and materials have decreased the risk of fire for many individuals. "Anecdotal information suggests that reported fires are more prevalent in older, less well cared for homes, and these are less likely to be equipped with a smoke alarm. Only 67% of households that had fires were reported to be equipped with a smoke alarm, slightly below the national average. Only 60% of households where a fire death occurred were equipped with smoke alarms; of those, 39% did not operate. These results clearly indicate that smoke alarms do contribute to saving lives." [FEMA. A Profile of Fire in the U.S.: 1992-2001. October 2004. Accessed online on May 14, 2008: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-293-508.pdf ]
Overall, persons living in overcrowded conditions, in buildings with poor heating, ventilation and cooking structures, in older buildings that do not meet building code requirements for new buildings, and in buildings without functioning smoke detectors or sprinkling systems continue to be at higher risk for fire in their homes than persons with appropriate fire prevention methods. Intuitively, the risk of fire-related injuries and death are therefore associated with the risk of having a fire in one's home, the ability to detect and escape the fire, and the response times of the fire department.
Why is this a Community Health Indicator?
An adequate number of fire stations geographically distributed throughout the City aids in ensuring rapid response and rescue to fires. Research from New York City in the 1970s demonstrates how cuts to fire stations in poor minority communities with overcrowded, aged housing triggered an epidemic of fires. Indirectly, the fires resulted in neighborhood abandonment, harming communities both physically and socially and negatively affecting health outcomes including drug use and tuberculosis rates.a- Wallace D, Wallace R. A Plague on Your Houses: How New York was Burned Down and National Public Health Crumbled. New York: Verso Press, 1998.