Skip to main content

tv   Fire Commission  SFGTV  June 5, 2024 3:00pm-4:06pm PDT

3:00 pm
>> i'll call the meeting. it is fire commission regular meeting, may 22, 2024, and the time is 5 o'clock. this meeting is being held in person. members of the public may attend the meeting to observe and provide public comment at the physical location or calling 415-655-0001 and using meeting id, 26642545416. the webinar password is 1234. members of the public may address the commission up to 3 minutes. please insure you are in a quite location, speak clearly, press
3:01 pm
star 3 to be added to the queue. the system will notify qu when you are in line. callers will hear silence while waiting to speak. operator will unmute you. you may watch live at www.sfgovtv.org. roll call. morgan, present. fraser, [indiscernible] steven [indiscernible] chief of department, jeanine nicholson. >> present. >> president morgan will now read the land acknowledgment. >> thank you madam secretary. the san francisco fire commission we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we
3:02 pm
recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> item 2, general public comment. members of the public may address the commission up to 3 minutes on any matter within the commission jurisdiction that does not appear on the agenda. speakers shall address the remarks to the commission as a whole and not individual commissioner or personnel. not to enter into debate or discussion with the speaker. the lack of response by the commissioners or department personnel does not necessarily constitute
3:03 pm
agreement with or support of statements made during public comment. >> good evening. we won't let you down, so i'm not letting you down. it will come after the revolution. [indiscernible] it will be a secret, so don't tell anyone. it is a secret. the unintelligence behind the technology, absolutely [indiscernible] that manage to steal [indiscernible]
3:04 pm
so, if you think this unintelligence is protecting you, i think you are in a world of illution, from which you better wake up, because it is worse. i think that is what i should say. i leave the rest for the [indiscernible] otherwise there is no secret. have a good night. >> there is nobody else approaching the podium. and nobody on the public comment line. item 3, approval of the minutes. discussion and possible action to approve the meeting minutes from may 8,
3:05 pm
2024. >> any questions or comments about the meeting for may 8? >> [indiscernible] >> i second. >> i vote aye. >> unanimous. >> thank you. >> any public comment on the minutes? there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. item 4, chief of department report. report from chief of department, jeanine nicholson on issues activities and events in the department since the meeting may 8, 2024 including budget academy, special events communication and outreach to other government agencies and the public and
3:06 pm
report from operation deputy chief darius luttropp report on overall field operations including greater alarm fires bureau of fire prevention and investigation and training within the department and air portment division. >> good evening president morgan, vice president fraser, commissioner collins, maureen, command staff. i'm chief jeanine nicholson and this is my report. since our last commission meeting on may 8. on may 8, chief luttropp and i attended a policy group exercise with dem and pd and all sorts of other departments for a city wide disaster drill for earthquake and chief luttropp shown in
3:07 pm
the meeting, shined, i don't know the correct term. we have our plan-we have a disaster plan, a strong one, a good one and we are ready to go to work, so there will be some follow-up on that for sure group exercises which i think is really good and should happen on a regular basis with the city. the exercise with a 7.8 earthquake in san francisco, so that was-yeah, good experience. on mother's day, happy belated mother's day tocollins and commissioner feinstein. commissioner fraser and commissioner collins and i attended the sisal williams celebration of life and we went to church that day. it was really quite a wonderful
3:08 pm
celebration over at glide memorial and the end of a era. this week-monday we had the unveiling of the headuators mural. you may have seen photos of it, but seeing in person is pretty cool and we worked with the academy of art and their students designed it and put it up on the wall. 22 year old young woman, student designed it, and she sort of ran the show and directed 6 or 8 other students in terms of putting it on the wall, so it is pretty great, and we are going to continue to build out some of the stuff at headquarters from there, so more partnerships in the future with academy of art. they have been a wonderful partner with us thus far. attended a sb43, which is
3:09 pm
senate bill 43 which has to do with conservatorship and 5150 folks for mental health and drug and alcohol issues and since january, when that law went into effect, 60 people had been conserved by the city. there are 701 people in conservatorship in the city, and 60 thus far this year, and i can tell you that is an astronomical leap because of this senate bill. i dont know how many we had last year. one or two. not sure. so, some things are moving in a good direction to get folks help and who really really need it. and our hands had been tied before. we had a labor management meeting yesterday with local 798.
3:10 pm
they had an ordinance introduced at the board of supervisors yesterday by supervisor stefani to create an ordinance to create a charter amendment ballot measure. in 2010 or 2012 there was what was called pension reform done and what happened was, it changes the retirement age in the fire department for folks hired after 2012 from 55 to 58. right now it is 55 is when you max out in terms of percentage per year and it changed to 58, and so, that was introduced at the board and we will see where that goes, but it is not something we necessarily do or get involved in. that is for the politicians to figure out with local 798, but just so
3:11 pm
you know, that may come up on your radar at some point. all wreak is ems appreciation week and a shout out to all our folks in ems and community paramedicine and those in suppression that do a lot of the ems work as well. we went to--with cd2, 3 and cd4 was there. went to station 49 on monday to greet everyone and provide them with a meal for the day, and i will be hopefully getting out to community paramedicine on evan street as well this week. yesterday there was a wonderful award ceremony. this happens every ems week, so it was ems award ceremony and three of our members were acknowledged for their wonderful work. emt frank was acknowledged for--he was
3:12 pm
at ucsf with his partner and they were stuck in triage, which is-this may be the only time it was a good thing they were stuck in triage for extended period. he went to the ambulance to retrieve a water bottle and saw someone about to attempt suicide by jumping off a large construction container. he had a nuse around his neck so he immediately went over to intervene and there was somebody filming it, and he immediately went to intervene and de-escalate and spoke to the man and man jumped anyway so he grabbed him and lifted him up and prevented him being ephyxiated and called for help so saved the life that man and got him into ucsf in stable physical condition and hopefully that person has you know, gotten the help he needed, but
3:13 pm
frank keener was recognized for that. our section chief of community paramedicine, april slone was acknowledged for disaster planning and great work she has done over the years . she had her hands involved in anything and everything to tactic ems, active shooter, manual stuff and community paramedicine. emily tam was acknowledged for her role as a community paramedic. she does go the extra mile and she's done several things that were not required or asked of her, including collecting clothing and shoes and gift cards for folks, so that our community paramedics have things to give out to folks on the street, and she was also
3:14 pm
instrumental in getting a program going in chinatown, called life line where they worked with non-english speaking community to get folks to fill out all their medical information, medicines, the conditions they have, their conditions, et cetera on a card for us so we don't have to scurry around and waste time trying to get information on somebody when it is right there for us and so, and her mother has been involved because her mother speaks cantonese and several other members have been involved in this, so hopefully it will be rolled out to other non-english speaking communities in the city. stuff like that, she doesn't have to do any that and she does it so she was recognized. it is nice to have a feel-good
3:15 pm
ceremony and the private ambulance, the emsa, the sheriff department and department of public health, the emsa and the physician who runs emergency services at general, dr. coldwell, they were all there. it was a nice really nice ceremony. our budget, we are just about done. director corso this afternoon is wrapping up with the mayor budget office, so we will get the final final of our budget from the mayor's office today or tomorrow, and we are meeting with supervisors on the budget committee in coming weeks, prior to you know, when they have budget hearings. we want to give them all the information they need prior to the budget hearings, so they know what's happening.
3:16 pm
in any case, we are going to the budget committee members and talking to them about our inability to cut, due to impact on operations, increased call volume, taking more calls for the police department, and the state of our fleet and infrastructure. the pfos free turn-outs that will be a cost to the department, et cetera, et cetera, so we are standing strong on that and hopefully we will have good meetings with them. graduation is next friday at 4 p.m. for the h2 academy. hopefully we'll see some of you there and i want to congratulate commissioner fraser i believe. you were sworn in two years ago this week. sorry i don't know anyone else sworn in, but--and then last but not
3:17 pm
least, we had numerous fires and this week and our folks have made some really-done some really impressive work and good saves. saved peoples lives and there is one high profile fire from yesterday on grove street where our folks did a great job and made an incredible-saved a life. that is really good news, but sorry that fire happened at all, but our folks are just really on the suppression side of things doing a wonderful job in terms of fires, and we had another rescue today on potrero and so, good things happening there and as always, happy ems and community
3:18 pm
paramedics as well. happy ems appreciation week. they are also doing stellar work out there and as we can see from the award ceremony. that concludes my report. happy to take any questions. >> [indiscernible] at this time, i like to see if there is any public comment, madam secretary. >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> fellow commissioners, anyone like to ask the chief a question? okay, go ahead commissioner collins. >> just want to say how appreciative the whole glide community was that both of you attended. reverend williams ceremony. it was very much as you know, community event and having the department
3:19 pm
represented really meant a lot, so thank you for being there. >> thank you. >> i'm saying that, because i sit on the board of glide. we are putting on that other hat while i'm sitting here. i wanted to extend thanks on behalf of everyone there. >> thank you. yeah. the end of a era and yeah, so-- >> hopefully-- >> we'll continue that wonderful work will continue, i'm certain that. yeah. >> commissioner fraser. >> thank you. thank you commissioner collins for that. i have to say, it was an amazing experience and i left there feeling like it is going to go on full speed ahead, non stop and that made me very happy, as did the entire service, which was incredible. just incredible to be in that audience. thank you chief for your report. i guess the only question i
3:20 pm
have is, a little bit about the conservator. so, i guess it is important for us to keep track a little bit that, so if there's a need or opportunity for us to advocate for more ongoing, whatever it is that has to happen because it looks like the need is of course rising. never going down, but that it is rising, so the 701 or 60 current since january, i think that is a important number for us to know and at least keep our eyes on. >> yes. under chief pang are keeping really good data around it, and we had a meeting with police and dph and others yesterday-yesterday or today? i can't remember. yesterday. and, you know talked about our collaboration and often the challenges is placement for folks, so--but we are
3:21 pm
continuing the good work. >> for sure. absolutely. and then the only thing, appreciate the update on the pfas turn-outs what we can do to make sure there are funds available as soon as possible so we can outfit our people in the safest jackets outfits, turn-outs possible. >> we do have a $3 million grachbt grants we will be expending on those turnouts and we also need to be really smart about purchasing, so doing fit testing with two different manufacturers now and we want to make sure this technology works as far as moisture barrier and protecting members in that way. i don't want to put all my money down on the first product that comes out, so we want to make sure there are
3:22 pm
other-and there are other products being worked on that hopefully will be out by the end of the year, but yes, and we will keep you apprised of it as we keep the board of supervisors apprised of our progress on that. >> is that enough money or close? >> $2.3 million, no. we need probably 10 to $12 million. >> good to know. thank you very much for the report. >> chief, thank you for your report and good news about the conservatorship. is that scott wiener's senate bill? >> could be, not sure, but it was definitely a collaborative effort on it to get some things changed for people that are really suffering on the streets and we had our hands tied and could not help them. it was a horrible feeling for our folks
3:23 pm
in ems and community paramedicine. we can't-you know? so, yeah, it's a good tool and our folks have been trained up properly on it and are trying to do the best for folks who are really really in need of help and cant help themselves. >> that is good some of our local politicians can collaborate with you guys and give you what you need and do great stuff like that. >> yeah. >> scott wiener and probably matt haney might have been involved in it, the usual suspects. they continue to do good work there and i appreciate it. the retirement deal, so who initiated that? >> local 798. >> they initiated it. okay. >> they initiated it and they are pushing it with the board of supervisors and other elected's
3:24 pm
and with all the mayoral candidates, they are going to push with them as well. yeah. >> interesting. okay. >> and another bill or another ordinance introduced by supervisor safai, who is also in the mayor's race was giving public safety pension to 911 call takers and dispatch, which they are a part of public safety, but he also included nurses in that and not sure what percentage or who he included in--so, yeah--it is a strange one, so we'll see what happens with that, but yeah, all sorts of political maneuvering happening. >> yeah, i like to echo the
3:25 pm
appreciation of the ems week and shout out to all the ems workers. keep up the great work and i just want to commend emily tam. >> yes. >> okay. and you mentioned another person, i forgot her name? >> april slone, section chief. >> i hear that name a lot and i met her i'm sure. >> i asked--we were in the theater in the main library downstairs there, and i asked who here does not know april slone, please raise your hand. there were just a couple hands, but yes, and then frank caner as well. >> great. i like to commend both of them. keep up the great work and you mentioned the ucsf incident. did that happened on the
3:26 pm
construction site or was the guy that attempted suicide? >> it happened in the right outside where we have our ambulances in the ambulance bay area, but there was a construction barrel or container right there- >> [indiscernible] >> there was piping or don't know what was above him, but he was able to secure a rope there. >> great work. >> yeah. >> i like to commend that firefighter as well. and the budget, how-- >> we were asked to cut 10 percent and additional 5 percent as all departments were, and so we have i think pretty much successfully pushed back on that because that would significantly impact our operations, so what we do each year when they ask for cuts is we
3:27 pm
show them exactly what that operational impact would look like, so many engines and ambulances and it would look like a crazy number of rigs out of service every single day, and we just cannot afford that with the increase in call volume, with the extended wait times at hospitals, with the rapid growth of fires, just with everything. seconds and minutes count, so i think they understand that and so, we are not cutting 10 percent, we are not cutting the additional 5 percent, and i'm not sure of the final final, but mark corso will be able to fill us in and fill you in hopefully coming weeks. >> hopefully we won't get a lot of push-back on that. i know the replacement of the turn-outs didn't help or not--
3:28 pm
>> yeah, no-yeah, it showed we have more need then we already have, because we have a great need with our vehicles and our infrastructure. we have training. all sorts of things, so we do our best to be as creative as possible in terms of grants and other funding opportunities and partnerships, but-so yeah, i dont have the final final from director corso, but we'll keep you posted about it. >> thank you. more about the turn-outs, i made comments, i didn't mean to seem insensitive about the replacement in the last meeting, but i read some that article about the turn-outs and they gave the impression the replacements were not quite as reliable as the pfas ones. so, i had concerns with that.
3:29 pm
>> i have concerns with that as well, and so that is why we are doing this testing with our members in the field, so they are wearing them right now and it is my understanding that they may not last as long as our other turn-outs, so--but if you put that up against-assuming they do work well as a moisture barrier and all that other stuff, if you put that up against you know, some of our cancer rates and all that, you know, it matters, but we also have the responsibility of insuring that our members are following every policy that we have on the books to help prevent cancer, so our over-haul policy, the air monitoring policy, our decontamination policy, et cetera, et cetera, because those things are super important pieces of the puzzle. yeah, it is all part of it.
3:30 pm
>> so, how realistic do you think aaron peskin's bill is to replace them all by-was it june 2025? >> june 2026. that is going to be challenging to do, to a find the money, and b get it done, but we will keep you posted on it and we are required by the bill to also keep the board of supervisors posted i think on a quarterly basis, so we'll do so and yeah-- >> we sure do appreciate the $2.3 million from the feds. that helps. >> yeah. our folks down getting grants and doing all the work, the footwork on that stuff. shiloh and mark corso help us out. >> mr. corso did a great job. sorry i missed the glide
3:31 pm
memorial service, sounds like it was a great situation. sorry i missed that event, i wanted to go but didn't make it. thank you for your report, chief. >> thank you. >> i guess we can move to chief luttropp's report. unless we need-we don't need public comment. chief luttropp, you have the floor, sir. >> good evening. chief nicholson, maureen, command staff. my name is deputy chief luttropp and this is my report ofor april of 24. as you can see from the suppression stats for the month of april, there was no unusual increase or trends. we are on pace for total boxes working fires. there were two greater alarms
3:32 pm
in this month. first i like to report out is, box number 2455, which occurred on the 6th of april at 689 kansas street, across 18th and 19th. the incident commander assistant chief baker. at [indiscernible] potrero hill neighborhood and he notes this neighborhood a known hazard for overhead wires and older houses. there were winds up to 20mile her hour winds which had a impact on this fire. the house itself, beautiful home. you can see from the picture on the left that there was a clear attic conversion that occurred in the structure, so it had gone from 2 floors of dwelling space to 3 and it was recognized by the units on scene that
3:33 pm
they would encounter the type of fire. the fire was hidden initially from us. it was started by roofing that was going on at the lowest level. there was penetration of the wall and the fire had a chance to get a decent amount of headway in the void spaces in the wall and there was significant and large voids in this building, which you can see demonstrated on the right. on the right, this is the staircase that is immediately adjacent to the attic space, the path of travel. again, a beautiful home with a decent amount of plywood and cladding on the wall so it took a while for fire to be detected and by then it was in the void spaces extensively. companies 29 and 37 confronted with moderate smoke over the roof line and began the investigative process. when they were achieving water supply and ladders raised the smoke
3:34 pm
conditions worsened significantly, probably do to the wind driven effect. this fipe type of fire in a void space, on the left side you can see the attic conversion, the significant voids created by walls not uncommon in homes in san francisco. once fire is in these spaces, there is no practical way to suppress the fire accept for removing all the cladding to the walls and ceiling and fighting the fire that way. it creates dramatic damage to the structure but the structure was saved and [indiscernible] you can see on the right hand side, the depth of the attic space created over the living space on the top floor. the predecessor chief [indiscernible]
3:35 pm
and operation chief, two in the roof right now worked very hard on training in the last two years for this specific type of fire. the training addressed fires and fighting fire in the void spaces and seen over the last 2 months and report out next month a number of fires and as the chief said, the operation and companies on scene have increased dramatically in effectiveness with the training that the chiefs build and guidance through our division on training to the units in the field. they were able to put this fire out with significant amount damage, but saving the structure. once they realized the amount of work that had to occur and the fact there was high potential to spread to the bravo and delta so to adjacent structures to the right and left a second alarm was struck and all units worked very very very hard at
3:36 pm
this fire. you can see there was a ton of physical labor that went into the fire and great deal saving the structure next to 689 kansas street. the second fire i'll report out today occurred early morning hours at 426 on 426. this is a fire that i reported to you a couple times or type of fire. this is building under construction. you can see the heavy scaffolding with gilgamesh that obscures the front of it building with significant fire on arrival. the reporting parties reported as 4 floors of fire. the chief was assistant chief ken yee. on arrival the engineer company, not the areaving chief requested
3:37 pm
second alarm recognizing potential spread to adjacent structures and the difficulty fighting the fire. this was vacant and reported as vacant in the initial reporting, but they as we always do in the city of san francisco, attempted to fight the fire in the most traditional manner which is enter the front door, suppress fire quickly on interior, they were hampered in this effort by the body of fire which burned out the floors on the second and third floor and had compromised the stairs. once this was recognized by companies on scene, the chief made the appropriate decision to withdraw the companies from intear interiors of the building and ladders with hose spraying watting to hold the fire to building of origin. that plan was instituted. all members accounted for in the street. the ladder pipe operation commenced. the fire was darkened and
3:38 pm
suppressed to a level where we could resume interior operations. this in my early days of firefighter career was referred to as transitional attack. that name is moved around in definition, but what we'll refer in your report is that it was a offensive operation that went to defensive operation that resumed as offensive operation. there was one injury at this fire, but you can see that the significant hazards they encountered did not stop them hold ing to the belding origin without significant damage to the adjacent structures and the strong work by everybody involved. fire watch was used to deter rekindle and that comes up occasionally in the reports. fire watch means we leave units on scene under supervision and the direct report to assistant chiefs who rotate through the night just to
3:39 pm
maintain our status on the scene that we are still in control of this fire building and if there is rekindle or another fire we are not relying on report from outside party and suppress the fire immediately and it won't get a chance to grow. this is the fire afterwards. it was not red tagged by dbi so the structures was considered relatively in tact and home owners took possession and will go back to work on it. i like to highlight when i get the chance the line items from suppression statistics that don't rise to greater alarm and interesting or worthy of note. box 7655 on 44th avenue on forth floor. another matching number set. my friend isn't here to tell me what that means. this ladder to the window demonstrates a less commonly used tactic
3:40 pm
that our firefighters introduce to in their recruit academy that is trained on frequently enough that the skill is maintained, but very rarely used by the members of the fire department. the occupant that room because of the fire conditions and the rest of the building was not able to be remuchbed through the structure, which is our standard form of rescue, and was taken down over the ladder safely and was transported with miner injuries so i wanted to highlight this. it doesn't really get called out in the one little line in your report, but strong strong work by our firefighters and chiefs and are the initiative they showed and training that goes into it. that's the end of my slides, which brings us to the prevention investigation. in all of the chief's numbers, i will direct you to page 12 where our notice of violations as predicted,
3:41 pm
there was a dramatic increase with the 5 year inspection and permitting program. they have leveled out, so now the bureau fire prevention is doing its work to go remedy these notices of violation to do inspections, get everybody in compliance and we'll see those numbers come down. through the rest of their inspections, they are on track and on task and managing to do the work that they need to do with some staffing concerns. 22 and 23, chief-sorry, commissioner fraser--highlighted these maps which willp continue to appear in the report. page 23 is the aggration over the 1 year period and as i said in the last report, we have seen dramatic increase in our number outside fires.
3:42 pm
i have a chief working right now to increase the validity and value of our national fire incident reporting system so we have a better insight into the types of fires that we are receiving as outside fires. they continue to increase, but there is nothing in the pattern on page 22 inconsistent with the previous month. for the purposes of the fire marshal major concern, besides all the bureau fire prevention investigation, interaction with the mta and with the task process. we had some good forward movement on that relationship in the month of april where we were given a direct liaison for captain flores at the mta to streamline our understanding of their projects. chief coughlin and i continue to work with the mta and controller's
3:43 pm
office to come up with design guidelines that will streamline that process further. another thing that occurred in the month of april was some work for us from the mta for vehicle blight or traffic blight preemption, because there will be great impacts on our response patterns and response times presumably from no turn on red in north of market and south of market area so that work continues and are thank the mta for assistance on that. and fire investigation, you can see is very busy. page 28. 11 structure fires, 13 vehicle fires, 2 outside fires and 5 others with 3 arrests made in the month so bureau fire investigation working very hard. sfo chief darcie not in attendance and highlight this for a moment for all the other things chief darcie does for the agency, with the city and for
3:44 pm
the greater fire service community is currently at a fire skilled meeting firefighter operations and serves as the fire department representation on a number fire scope committees so that the needs of city like san francisco are not lost in the grand california fire agency, which can focus heavily on wild land firefighter or suburban community fire fighting and really get the metropolitan area needs addressed so that is where he is at and work highlighted in his report, including his attendance at the air craft rescue-he also serves on national nfpa and other regulatory groups for his specific part of the us house is aircraft res it cue and fire fighting so doing grite work for the
3:45 pm
airport long-term. [indiscernible] pfsa free foam. foam besides our turn hp out equipment was the source of pfas in the firefighter community so that is being moved completely from our inventory and he will be the leader in that, because obviously at the airport, they use a significant amount of foam and it is their primary mean of suppressing fire. they can't just use water solely to fight a aircraft fire. and his work on this also leads to interviews and currents process through the city attorney office of pursuing legal action for recovery of cost for pfas injury and foam. i will highlight that, they conductsed the faa inspection in the month of april at the airport and he
3:46 pm
anticipated that after a number of years getting through with hundred percent marks, there is probably miner--they brought in toughest inspector to inspect the airport and inspect particularly the airport division of the airport and he got through hundred percent again. don't know what to tell you about this guy. on page 30, something leaped out at me because i'm very jealous. if we go to his news letter, they got the tour on 8380. i dont know-commissioner collins you been on 8380? i'm very jealous and look forward to the next chance to get on 8380 and maybe get a solid tour, but seems like a fantastic opportunity.
3:47 pm
that air plane crash didn't occur in san francisco. [indiscernible] and training, chief [indiscernible] is as busy as ever. some things i highlight, rwc jet ski certification, this was a class held for station 4 in mission bay area and this is part of a longer term plan to increase our ability to respond to water rescue on bay side and southeast portion of the city so the plan is moving forward and thank the chief supporting the class and supporting so heavily. page 36 and 37 was demonstration of two events that occurred simultaneously at division of training. the chief highlighted this and the
3:48 pm
amount of work going on at the division and training on this day. it included not only the probationary class and the recruit class of h2, but also h3 level 2, but there was a demonstration with members of the california oes command staff in attendance and representation from the iaff, not just local, but the president was in attendance of our helicopter rescue plan, the hrt which i have spoken of in the past and this because it was earthquake centered, demonstrated our insertion of a rescue k-9, not unlike the rascal in the corner, into a rubble pile to demonstrate the ability to [indiscernible] just increase in capacity, wonderful drill and we were
3:49 pm
able to take possession of a trainer or prop for firefighter rescue and survival training, provided through the international association of firefighters and their trainers trained --to pass their version of the training on and this use of a trailer allows us to bring that to the field and not necessarily wait for a time period where the division of training isn't as full as it was on this day, but that actually expanded to our 19th and folsom location or where we have space to put this trainer and we can bring in service companies to it with our trainers and conduct wonderful training. i do want note page 39 and this isn't a change, but there are 101 probationary
3:50 pm
members in the field and that is the joy we have hiring large classes and joy increasing membership and reducing mandatory overtime and building succession and resiliency into our workforce, it is heavy heavy work load on division on training and managing 101 probationary members in the field while doing all these other things and wanted to call that out. page 43 is the work of our special operation training captain. another one i refer to in the past that is our voice in specialized rescue and training nationally and at the state level and with that in mind the chief signed a letter of intent to develop a regional task force. urban search and rescue regional tang task force, the development and
3:51 pm
implementation has been sended to assistant deputy chief miller because of his strong work with task force 3 over the years and to [indiscernible] and we anticipate a quick adoption and roll out of this program. it probably won't be in the 4 months i told oes but a much shorter timeframe i anticipate other agencies able to accomplish this. for nert, they had the city wide drill at spark social on 4-20. well attended, many members of the command staff, commissioner nakajo was there. a wonderful opportunity to see nert in operations and for them to interact with our firefighters and also gives the opportunities to pull one member of the organizations aside and ask them to take the temporary nert coordinator position, so lieutenant jonathan honda has been named temporary nert coordinator and like to make
3:52 pm
announcement that and look forward to great things from john honda. that is the end of this portion of the report, but in the past we talked about our interactions with autonomous vehicles and the state of play with autonomous vehicles so i'll point out thijs in april. in april i traveled to sacramento and testify in the transportation subcommittee on assembly member tang ab1777. it passed through transportation unanimously. it has since gone on to appropriations, where it also passed unanimously and continues to move quickly through the assembly and we expect adoption of this bill and it has nearly all of the things the chief asked for as well as changes to the california vehicle code or changes in reporting and
3:53 pm
then an attempt at a way to sanction the companies for not complying with california vehicle code. another group, at the national level with department of transportation, they have a committee technology and transportation advisory commission, the head that commission is a chief from chandler arizona who was good enough to invite us to the meetings, so commander nicole jones and myself had a opportunity to present. it was well received and a meeting we had today, they actioned the 5 initiatives proposed by the chief for the industry and those will move from that advisory group to the department of transportation. so, it continues to move and we look forward to success all around.
3:54 pm
our wamo meetings continue next week and zukes has been approved for a measured roll out in the city of san francisco. i expect to see their driverless carriages on the streets with passengers by the end of this year, and that's the end of my report. >> [unable to hear speaker because microphone isn't on. >> there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> [indiscernible] >> chief luttropp, with the bill moving through its stages on autonomous vehicles, do you have a sense of the timing of approval and adoption that bill? >> i do not. there are four bills currently moving
3:55 pm
through the assembly that directly relate to autonomous vehicles. there may be some attempt to align these bills prior to their adoption, adoption. haney's bill has a lot more interaction with the vehicle code, but so far it has been moving very swiftly. >> thank you. >> i got a couple things. thank you chief luttropp, very interesting report. i justerous just wanted to share with you and the others in the command staff, the fire at potrero hill, a block from my house, the resident that home is a very involved and known member in that community and i went over there-i was there the day of the fire and went the next morning and she was in the house trying to find things and she was in shock of course and pawing through what was left
3:56 pm
after the fire and she said, i want to show you something. we climbed up the crispy charred stairs, it was insane, because she wanted to show the upper floor, in the back is her office, her computer, business records, all her files and she wanted me to know so i could tell you all that somebody, someone or several someones in our fire department found something to throw over to protect her stuff in her office and she was very very appreciative that and very touched by that. meanwhile, everything else was pretty much destroyed, but it made a impression. it really did, so i wanted to share that and say thank you for her and for all of us for those efforts that don't often-they are often invisible and not often acknowledged enough.
3:57 pm
congratulations to the division of training, 101. unbelievable probationary firefighters out there. that's incredible. what is a knee wall? >> a knee wall--so-go back to the picture. a knee wall is just a description of a short non -bearing wall used to cover for the most part just where the angles of the roof meet the angle of the floor. sometimes it is used for storage, sometimes-- >> [indiscernible] >> as you can see, it is often a significant space, and depending on the method of instillation, if the wall behind it isn't finished, then you get continuous bays. this house is of a age that it was what we call balloon frame construction, so there is continuous are void
3:58 pm
that travels through the stud bays from the seal all the way to the top of the attic, so a knee wall can be hazardous if fire isn't detected and activity is taking place, if there is advanced fire with smoke inside of it, there can be hostile fire events. we call it osion. so, it is incumbent on members to be prepared to fight fire when they open the spaces, but for the most part allows there to be a unchecked void and then all that material has to be removed and water applied. >> 1907, a knee wall year. also, i wanted to say congratulations on the mta liaison. i know that's a really important thing going forward. the work that you all do to make sure
3:59 pm
we can--our people can get to where they need to go as quickly as possible. and then my last question is, the 3 arrests. are those arson arrests or what does that mean? are those- >> those are arrests for arson. >> okay, great. thanks again for shouting out the outdoor fires and increase in outdoor fires. and great report. thank you so much. >> thank you chief luttropp. very descriptive report and this is--and all the other departments here, like sfo. great report on that accident in japan and when i first started reading, i was
4:00 pm
browsing and said i didn't hear about this. it is in japan. you know what i mean. we can learn from these incidents because that can be a very dangerous place, a airport and you got all these planes coming in and leaving out and going the wrong runway, it is scary. i get the willies every time i drive to a airport like that. i remember we did the tour and are we safe out here or is a plane going to land on is? that could be very intense. i enjoy reading about the report and like to thank chief darcie for that. i like all the pictures in the report. hopefully nothing ever happens like that at sfo.
4:01 pm
two planes colliding. it is what it is. and, i like the descriptions in the fire. you did that just for me when you were describing the building, the left side, the bravo side. i always forget which side is bravo side and which is delta side. you pointed that out, so i can get a picture in my mind what happened. fortunately, those guys that were on the roof with a tourch didn't help matters, but stuff happens. i guess they were working on the roofing, the ceiling or whatever? trying to seal it up with membranes or something and it got hot. i was referring to the 689 kansas street. >> correct. >> yeah. they were on scene and very helpful and told us what happened. >> and no injuries.
4:02 pm
engine 29 and 37 showed up just in time. good deal. unfortunate about the incident with all the scaffolding in the way and i like the descriptions you gave with offensive and defensive and painting a good picture of your tactics there, so i appreciated that. and then the other thing is, just like to commend the department of training for all the new recruits and all the training. like to commend chief [indiscernible] all the great work she's doing and she might have left. just a great report and won't hold you much longer chief luttropp. thank you for your time and descriptive report. >> thank you. >> we'll move on to item 5.
4:03 pm
public comment on item 6. public comment on all matters pertaining to 6b below including public comment on whether to hold item 6b in closed session. is and there is nobody approaching the podium and nobody on the public comment line. >> okay. >> possible closed session regarding public employee appointment hiring. vote whether to conduct 6b in closed session. may hear in closed session persund to code 54957b and san francisco administrative code 6710b. >> is there a motion is in >> i move we hold item 6b in closed session. >> i vote yes. >> the motion unanimous and
4:04 pm
we'll go into closed session at 604. [closed session] [meeting reconvened] >> we are back in open session. there is nothing to report, no action taken in closed session, so item 5 is vote to elect whether to disclose any or all discussion held in closed session. >> [unable to hear speaker] >> not to disclose? >> second.
4:05 pm
>> the motion unanimous and item 9 is adjournment. >> i like to make a motion to adjourn. >> all in favor? this meeting is adjourned at 6:20. [meeting adjourned] a city like no other, san francisco hasn