San Francisco city leaders and fire officials celebrated the start of construction on an expansive training facility for the San Francisco Fire Department in the Bayview District this week.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, San Francisco Fire Chief Dean Crispin, District 10 representative on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Shamann Walton and others held a groundbreaking ceremony at the 8-acre site at 1200 Carroll Ave. on Thursday.
The training facility will be anchored by a 50,000 square foot building that will be the central training grounds for the fire department once it is completed in 2029, according to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office.
“This is where firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs will be forged,” Crispin said in a statement. “This will be the heart of the San Francisco Fire Department.”
The roughly $135 million project is funded by an earthquake safety bond for first responder facilities approved by San Francisco voters in 2020.
Walton, whose District 10 encompasses the Bayview neighborhood, said the area would benefit from the facility being located there.
“This investment creates real opportunity, building pathways for local residents into careers in public safety and strengthening the future of our workforce,” Walton said.
The training site will provide a central location for the department’s Training Division by situating administration services, classrooms, recruitment operations, and heavy equipment storage in one place, according to the mayor’s office.
The facility will also have multiple live-fire and rescue training structures, a maintenance shop, and host urban search and rescue simulations. Paved roads with hills will give first responders a real-world feel for dealing with emergencies in San Francisco.