San Francisco Fire Fighters Campaign to Keep Firehouses Open

March 4, 2009 – San Francisco, CA Local 798 is kicking off a campaign to ensure that every neighborhood is served by a fully staffed firehouse. In 2005, San Francisco voters passed the Neighborhood Firehouse Protection Act, keeping all of the city’s 42 fire stations open. But now, with San Francisco facing a budget deficit of nearly $600 million, those firehouses are again at risk for closures.

The campaign includes newspaper ads in every neighborhood paper with versions in Spanish and Chinese and on the San Francisco Chronicle web site (beginning March 5). Local 798 has also developed its own web site to save firehouses from shutdown, as well as a Facebook page, "Save Our Firehouse Coalition," that is part of the social networking common in modern campaigning.

While other jurisdictions are facing severe budget cuts, San Francisco Local 798 is using an aggressive and offensive strategy to keep firehouses open and fully staffed.