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San Francisco Chronicle
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- San Francisco Chronicle
If Waymos are ignited during Saturday's No Kings protest, S.F. officials could let them burn
With massive demonstrations anticipated across the Bay Area on Saturday, firefighters in San Francisco are bracing for one dramatic form of protest theater: The torching of Waymo robotaxis. Burning the driverless cars became a fraught symbol of the moment during protests in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday, which tipped off a week of escalating tension between President Donald Trump and California's major blue cities. Photos of the charred, smoldering, graffiti-scrawled cars instantly went viral on social media, transforming a manicured Southern California boulevard into an apparent war zone. If it happens in San Francisco, Fire Chief Dean Crispen said at a recent meeting, it might be better to let the cars burn. 'In a period of civil unrest, we will not try to extinguish those fires unless they are up against a building,' Crispen told members of the San Francisco Fire Commission on Wednesday. He explained that since the electric Waymo SUVs run on lithium ion batteries, they burn 'incredibly hot' and tend to explode when ignited. Such blazes are challenging to put out, and become dangerous due to the rapidly rising temperatures of the cars' batteries, a phenomenon called 'thermal runaway,' Crispen said. These sudden spikes can lead to sporadic eruptions. Quelling a Waymo fire would require connecting to a fire hydrant and essentially tethering firefighters to a single area, in a situation where they need to be mobile and agile. Crispen's comments provided a window into how emergency responders are planning and coordinating for a series of No Kings marches and rallies that could be structured and peaceful — or devolve into violence and property damage. Waymo plans to constrain service of its Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles this weekend, pulling the cars out of the Financial District, SoMa, the Mission and Potrero Hill, according to company staff. The robotaxis will still be available on San Francisco's west side and in other areas. Set to coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday and a military parade in Washington, D.C., No Kings Day will cap off a week of protests in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, which started off as a reaction to federal immigration raids, and then widened in scope. As Trump deployed troops in Los Angeles to intimidate protesters, anger at the president intensified. Organizers of Saturday's actions have called the president a 'would-be king.' Among the most captivating images from the initial Los Angeles protests were the scorched Waymo cars, lined up in a row and engulfed in heavy black smoke. Some observers believe the cars were targeted because of their association with Big Tech. Others view the Waymos as hapless victims, because they have no one behind the wheel and easily become paralyzed if an object is placed in their path. Lighting cars on fire is a common protest tactic, Omar Wasow, an assistant professor of political science at UC Berkeley, said in a recent interview. He noted that in the past, and particularly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, demonstrators often directed their rage at police cruisers. 'At the same time,' Wasow said. 'There are some things that are specific to a Waymo car. You can stop it easily. There's not a driver who is going to try to drive through the crowd. It's almost a sitting duck.' Still, others wonder whether the L.A. demonstrators had arranged the cars in a defensive barricade, then lit the fires knowing they would be hard to control. 'I have no doubt the protesters not only called the Waymos, but that they lined the Waymos up in a strategic and defensive position,' said William Riggs, a professor of engineering and management at the University of San Francisco who studies autonomous vehicles. Representatives of Waymo said they had no reason to believe people had deliberately hailed vehicles to a scene to be destroyed. 'Safety is our top priority, and we are taking heightened measures to keep our vehicles and riders safe including limiting our service in needed areas,' a spokesperson for the company wrote in a statement. 'We are working in close coordination with local law enforcement and fire departments.' In response to the chaos in Los Angeles, Waymo diverted service from the downtown center. Subsequently, the company limited trips in certain parts of San Francisco, where protesters gathered on Monday. Though at that time the autonomous vehicle company declined to provide details about what was evidently an evolving service plan, Waymo's self-driving fleet on Monday appeared to be largely absent from SoMa and the Mission, two areas where the cars are normally ubiquitous. Protests took place that night at the 24th and Mission BART Station plaza and outside City Hall. Crews that responded to the Waymo fires in Los Angeles mostly stood by as the cars incinerated, Crispen said. He noted that San Francisco firefighters will follow suit, while assuring that his personnel would carefully monitor the fires and heed any decisions from incident commanders.
San Francisco Chronicle
02-06-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Crisis': S.F. fire chief says city's aging fleet could limit capacity to fight major blazes
San Francisco's aging and limited fleet of fire trucks and engines could restrict firefighters' ability to quell the blazes that could rip through the city after a major earthquake, the city's fire chief said. A four-alarm fire that tore through a Nob Hill apartment building in April and injured three people got fire chief Dean Crispen's attention, he said. More than 100 firefighters responded and extinguished the blaze in about two hours, but the event stoked Crispen's lingering fears about worst-case scenarios. 'I would have been concerned that that fire would have continued to burn for several days if it had been subsequent to an earthquake,' Crispen told the Chronicle. If it had, he said, the blaze could easily have spread through Nob Hill to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and beyond. That's because more than a third of the San Francisco Fire Department's fleet of fire trucks and fire engines is 20 years old or older, including six front-line trucks and engines that are more than 25 years old, Crispen said. That puts SFFD far out of compliance with the voluntary standards set by the National Fire Protection Association, an industry nonprofit. Those guidelines say that 15-year-old equipment should be moved from front-line service to backup reserves, and 25-year-old equipment should be retired altogether, because outdated equipment lacks the safety upgrades of newer models, said Ken Holland, a senior specialist with the nonprofit. For SFFD to put 25-year-old trucks and engines on the front lines is 'a significant risk,' Holland said. SFFD needs to buy at least 10 fire engines and between seven and 10 fire trucks to meet NFPA standards, Crispen said. In an ideal world, SFFD's 'incredibly busy' fleet would be held to an even more stringent standard, because the city's steep hills and sharp corners mean engines and trucks 'take a fair amount of a beating here,' he said. If and when the Big One strikes, SFFD has a process for recalling as many as 1,000 firefighters into the city. Fires are common in the wake of a major earthquake. Though the 7.9 magnitude quake that roiled San Francisco in 1906 buckled buildings, 80% of property damage came from the fires that followed, sparked by downed power lines and natural gas leaks from broken mains, according to a 1972 federal report. But without enough fire trucks and engines, the reinforcements who respond to those fires could be limited in the help they can give, Crispen said. 'The problem is when they arrive, we currently don't have the apparatus for them to staff to assist in an emergency,' he said. Buying new equipment is challenging because costs have 'skyrocketed' to as high as $2.5 million for a truck and $5 million for an engine, and because supply chain delays that began during COVID have caused production timelines to stretch as long as three years, Crispen said. SFFD ordered three Rosenbauer fire trucks more than a year ago and doesn't expect them to be delivered until next summer, Crispen said. In the meantime, SFFD's aging fleet can run the department more than $500,000 a month in maintenance costs to resolve a 'litany of mechanical problems,' Crispen said. Making repairs requires taking vehicles out of service, and it's hard to find parts that fit old truck and engine models. 'We're in a bit of a crisis at this point,' he said. The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed two pieces of legislation in May intended to expedite the purchasing process by removing bureaucratic hurdles. The ordinances are expected to reach Mayor Daniel Lurie's desk in the coming weeks. One ordinance would allow Lurie, Crispen and a handful of executive staff to court private funding for a period of six months, waiving the usual requirement under the city's behested payment ordinance that prohibits city officials from seeking donations from 'interested parties,' or people who might be eligible for city contracts in the near future. The second ordinance would allow the fire department to negotiate directly with fire apparatus manufacturers, going around the required competitive bidding process. Supervisor Connie Chan, who sponsored both ordinances, said that the twin pieces of legislation were designed to 'fast track' purchasing. 'While our firefighters here in San Francisco are consistently doing their best, the equipment is not keeping up with the demands,' the District 1 supervisor told the Chronicle. Three companies — Rev Group, Oshkosh and Rosenbauer — control as much as 80% of the fire apparatus manufacturing market, according to reporting by the New York Times. 'What is there to bid when it's really monopolized by three companies?' Chan said. Chan said that the board of supervisors has discussed allocating money from the city's budget for the purchases, but that finding the money has been 'difficult.' If Lurie signs the legislation, Chan said, she is hopeful that city officials can raise about $20 million in six months, enough for up to a dozen fire trucks. She expects that the expedited purchasing process could cut the time between ordering and receiving a fire truck down to one year. Chan said she did not know who might donate to the cause, but that she was confident the mayor could leverage his connections. Crispen said the legislation gives him 'some hope' that SFFD can buy the equipment it needs. The department is making a plan for soliciting donations, he said, and 'large corporations would be an obvious starting place.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers seek to put an end to police quotas
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio lawmakers are working to ban police quotas. 'Our law enforcement officers should not be used as revenue generators,' Rep. Kevin Miller (R-Newark) said. 'That's rule number one.' 'Ohio has become synonymous with high police ticket quotas,' Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake) said. New development denied at site of Pickaway County farmland Miller and Sweeny are behind House Bill 131; Senate Bill 114 is identical and both would prohibit law enforcement agencies from using citation quotas. 'They're out there to protect the public and they shouldn't be given some arbitrary number of citations that have no correlation to public safety,' Miller said. Miller formerly worked for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, where the union prohibits the use of quotas for that agency already. He said given that fact, no other police department should have an issue with a ban. 'If our Ohio State Highway Patrol, who is arguably the most proactive law enforcement agency in the state, can operate under a system that prohibits quotas, there's no reason other agencies can't do the same,' Miller said. Ohio University closing diversity offices, women and pride centers 'This is by no means to demonize anyone; there are real struggles to fill budget holes,' Sweeney said. 'It just should not be on the backs of Ohioans.' The bill passed a House committee during the last general assembly with no votes against it. The Senate bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee also with no votes against it on April 17. The legislation also creates an anonymous reporting system for officers to use if leaders are still requiring quotas or using them for things like promotions or evaluations. So far, between last year and this year, only one opponent has testified. That is Mike Crispen, president of the Central Ohio Chiefs Association. He was not available for an interview on Tuesday, but in a March post on his organization's website, he said the definition of quota is too broad in the bill and said it will lead to less accountability within departments. UPS to cut 20K jobs, close some facilities as it reduces amount of Amazon shipments 'And all of this sends the wrong message, especially now,' Crispen's statement said. 'When crime is rising and repeat offenders are cycling through the system, the last thing Ohio needs is a law that makes it harder for officers to act — or harder for supervisors to expect action.' Crispen said the memo outlines the organization's official position on the bill. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
