{"id":35946,"date":"2024-09-05T12:19:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T19:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35946"},"modified":"2024-09-05T12:19:24","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T19:19:24","slug":"sandy-tong-s-f-s-first-asian-fire-chief-and-first-without-firefighting-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/sandy-tong-s-f-s-first-asian-fire-chief-and-first-without-firefighting-background\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Tong: S.F.\u2019s first Asian fire chief \u2014 and first without firefighting background"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A\"A by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
New interim chief of the San Francisco Fire Department Sandra Tong on Sep. 3, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter<\/strong>, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor London Breed today appointed a new interim chief of the San Francisco Fire Department: Sandra Tong. Tong was the department\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have known Sandy Tong for many, many years, and she has consistently stepped up to the plate,\u201d said Breed. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Chief Jeanine Nicholson abruptly announcing her retirement on July 26<\/a>, both department insiders and San Francisco politicos anticipated her replacement, to be appointed by Breed only months before November\u2019s election, would be Chinese American. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cthe nicest person in the world\u201d and \u201can extremely competent manager,\u201d said a veteran firefighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her pedigree as a 35-year<\/a>-employee on the EMS side of the department, however, led to consternation among veterans on the fire side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Birite<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTraditionally, you get a fire chief that comes from the fire service, meaning they were a firefighter,\u201d a department veteran said in an interview today. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What difference could this make? \u201cIt\u2019s just that people have concerns that if there\u2019s a major conflagration, if there is an earthquake, if there\u2019s a disaster of some large scale that usually defers to the chief to run the incident \u2026 she might have difficulties running an incident and having an intimate knowledge of what\u2019s necessary on the fire side,\u201d the veteran firefighter added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another veteran firefighter expressed similar concerns. \u201cWe would like to see that job filled from somebody within the command and control structure of the fire suppression, somebody who\u2019s actually worked on a fire engine,\u201d he said. \u201cNot just a medical aid with multiple apparatus people and things going on. There\u2019s no command and control in that respect from the EMS side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Advert1\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sandra Tong (left), London Breed and Jeanine Nicholson (right) on Sep. 3, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These concerns were not universal, however. \u201cIt\u2019s four months, what can happen?\u201d said a third veteran firefighter, who stressed that Tong is a good person who has been around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think she\u2019ll be good at what she does. She has other people there to take care of things that are her blind spots. And she has a doctorate in administration so she might be pretty good compared to the last three chiefs we\u2019ve had, to be honest!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen whether the appointment of Tong can really bring Chinese votes to Breed in her re-election battle. \u201cSandy is not a well-known commodity,\u201d said political consultant David Ho. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t have the prior department head appointees\u2019 sort of historical background that\u2019s involved with the nonprofit sector and the community engagement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firefighters union, which gave its sole endorsement to Breed in the last contested mayoral race in 2018, last month voted overwhelmingly<\/a> to award its sole endorsement to mayoral candidate Mark Farrell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tong has a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, and used to be outgoing chief Nicholson\u2019s supervisor when the latter was a paramedic in the early 2000s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me just tell you, she suffers no fools. Don\u2019t take her for granted. She knows what she\u2019s doing,\u201d said Nicholson at today\u2019s ceremony, which also marks her last day in the department. \u201cShe is a hard worker and she does the right thing for the right reasons, and I am incredibly comfortable and incredibly confident in passing the torch on to Chief Tong.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breed, however, noted Tong\u2019s connection with the local Chinese community. \u201cI am also really happy that she is a native daughter of San Francisco, born at Chinese Hospital in Chinatown,\u201d said the mayor during the ceremony. \u201cShe has deep roots in Chinatown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMayor Breed, thank you so much for this incredible honor,\u201d said Tong. \u201cI am humbled by this opportunity and will serve you to the best of my abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LATEST NEWS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

yujie@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER. Yujie Zhou came on as an intern after graduating from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a full-time staff reporter as part of the Report for America program that helps put young journalists in newsrooms. Before falling in love with the Mission, Yujie covered New York City, studied politics through the \u201cstreet clashes\u201d in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She\u2019s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.More by Yujie Zhou<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU\u00a0and\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI SEPTEMBER 3, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up Mayor London Breed today appointed a new interim chief of the San Francisco Fire Department: Sandra Tong. Tong was the department\u2019s deputy chief of emergency… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35947,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35946\/revisions\/35947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}