Mayor London Breed today appointed a new interim chief of the San Francisco Fire Department: Sandra Tong. Tong was the department’s deputy chief of emergency medical services and community paramedics. Not only is she the first Asian American chief, she is also the first San Francisco Fire Chief who did not ascend from the firefighting side of the fire department. 

“I have known Sandy Tong for many, many years, and she has consistently stepped up to the plate,” said Breed. “The fire department does an extraordinary job of responding to emergencies and putting out fires and saving lives and doing all the incredible work. But almost 80 percent of the calls that come into the department come from the EMS division, and it requires someone who understands.”

Prior to being named interim chief, Tong was the highest-ranking Chinese American within the department. Deputy Chief of Administration Shayne Kaialoa, whom Mission Local is informed did interview for the job, is also Asian. But he is a Pacific Islander and is not Chinese. 

With Chief Jeanine Nicholson abruptly announcing her retirement on July 26, both department insiders and San Francisco politicos anticipated her replacement, to be appointed by Breed only months before November’s election, would be Chinese American. 

Politics aside, fire department veterans spoke highly of Tong. Her colleagues gave high regards to both her personality and her performance in a managerial position. Tong is both “the nicest person in the world” and “an extremely competent manager,” said a veteran firefighter.

Her pedigree as a 35-year-employee on the EMS side of the department, however, led to consternation among veterans on the fire side. 

“Traditionally, you get a fire chief that comes from the fire service, meaning they were a firefighter,” a department veteran said in an interview today. “And Sandy Tong, the new chief, is one of those people that has only been a paramedic who only worked on the medical side, and has never been a firefighter.”

What difference could this make? “It’s just that people have concerns that if there’s a major conflagration, if there is an earthquake, if there’s a disaster of some large scale that usually defers to the chief to run the incident … she might have difficulties running an incident and having an intimate knowledge of what’s necessary on the fire side,” the veteran firefighter added.

Another veteran firefighter expressed similar concerns. “We would like to see that job filled from somebody within the command and control structure of the fire suppression, somebody who’s actually worked on a fire engine,” he said. “Not just a medical aid with multiple apparatus people and things going on. There’s no command and control in that respect from the EMS side.”