From the Bay to the breakers, here's how SFFD prepares for and handles water rescues

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The San Francisco Fire Department's surf and cliff rescue team at Station 34 is out by Ocean Beach.

"Because we're so close to Sea Cliff and Lands End and Baker Beach, we're just well positioned to respond to anything like that," said Seamus Roddy, a firefighter with Station 34.

Crews perform a water rescue drill twice a week to keep their skills sharp.

"We have an identified victim, just a single victim rescue. Sometimes the fastest way we can get to the victim is with the rescue board," Roddy said.

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Quite often people get in trouble because they are unaware of the dangers at Ocean Beach.

"We get all kinds of stuff, there are people visiting, people who aren't familiar with Ocean Beach," Roddy said. "This is a four mile stretch of beach with a ton of tide movement and current movement in and out of the Golden Gate."

There are seven fire stations in San Francisco dedicated to water rescues with 200 trained specialized staff.

"That allows us to be able to respond quickly to the ocean or the Bay for anyone that is reported to be in the water for whatever reason that may be, a surfer, a swimmer, a ship in distress, a capsized boat," SFFD Spokesperson Lt. Mariano Elias said. "From January to July of this year, we've had over 130 rescues, that's a combination of water and cliff rescues, so we are very busy."

Station 34's proximity to Land's End means they can also quickly be deployed when needed to rescue someone from a cliff.

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Then there's Station 35 along the Embarcadero.

"This is the new firehouse, it went in service in 2018," Lt. Stephen Giacaloni said.

That's the floating fire station, which has three fireboats and rescue water crafts to respond to fire calls on land and in the Bay.

The building is purposely meant to withstand earthquakes and rising sea levels.

"Think of it as a huge, giant floating houseboat, so it does float so these pilings here and two in the back, so this whole thing floats up and down, sideways, everything," Giacoloni said.

One of the station's most memorable moments was during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake when the fire hydrants in parts of the Marina District ran out of water.

The old Phoenix fireboat and the manifolds on board were connected to fire hoses on the ground and helped stop the fire from spreading to other neighborhoods.

"The citizens dragging the hose lines up Fillmore Street from the Bay, it was the Phoenix that was pumping into those hose lines that helped put out a lot of those big fires in the Marina," Giacaloni said. "The fireboat will never, ever run out. We're here for two things, save lives and property."