About Proposition F

San Franciscans agree that fire safety, emergency and ambulance services are essential and should not be cut.That’s why more than 22,000 San Francisco voters signed petitions to put Proposition F, the Neighborhood Firehouse Protection Act, on the November 8, 2000 San Francisco ballot.

Proposition F puts a stop to “brownouts” — the daily closures of engine companies in neighborhood firehouses throughout San Francisco. When vital equipment such as fire engines and ambulances inside these firehouses are not fully operational, it puts our neighborhoods at increased risk:

• It now takes longer for fire engines and ambulances to respond to emergencies. In fact, during several serious fires this year fire crews were forced to respond from distant firehouses because vital equipment with the neighborhood firehouse was “browned out.” 

• Last December, a fire in Bernal Heights killed a 78 year old man. The fire engine in his neighborhood firehouse was browned out. This year, an engine with specialized equipment necessary to respond to a major electrical fire was browned out – 22,000 people were left without electricity.

• If a major disaster were to occur, such as a terrorist attack or a powerful earthquake, our Fire Department would not be fully prepared to respond properly.

• Due to a lack of resources, the Fire Department and ambulance service cannot respond to less urgent calls due to a lack of resources.

Proposition F will put a stop to the brownouts by requiring the city to keep neighborhood firehouses open and fully operational – restoring fire and emergency service levels to where they were in January 2004 – before this dangerous policy was instituted.

Proposition F does not mandate cuts to other services, or require specific budget amounts or percentages. But it does make public safety an urgent priority.

Our Fire Department has made extensive reforms, cut waste and bureaucracy, and dramatically improved efficiency – tripling emergency responses while decreasing daily staffing by over 100 front-line employees. We’re cutting fat – but we shouldn’t cut neighborhood firehouses that are your first line of defense for fires, medical emergencies, and major disasters.

Vote YES on F to keep every neighborhood safe by keeping our neighborhood firehouses open.

Click here to read the complete text of the Neighborhood Firehouse Protection Act.