A group of 33 commercial crab fishermen have sued the city of San Francisco, California, blaming it for a fire at a pier-side warehouse that they say destroyed their stored fishing gear and made participating in the just-about-to-begin 2020-21 Dungeness crab season much more difficult.
Some of the photographs included in the 30-page complaint filed Wednesday in the Superior Court of the State of California and for the County of San Francisco look like something out of a 1970s disaster movie. One picture, shot from a distant hillside, shows big billows of smoke visible over the location of Shed C on Pier 45, a more than 85,000 square-foot structure designated as a storage facility for the harvesters.
Though more than 150 firefighters were deployed, the facility, operated by the Port of San Francisco, was destroyed in the four-alarm fire during the early hours of May 23. The inferno caused $12 million worth of property damage, causing concrete exterior walls and steel beams that supported the ceiling to collapse, according to the lawsuit.
Photographs of the Pier 45 fire in San Francisco, California, included in a lawsuit filed Dec. 16, 2020
The fire "obliterated" fishing gear that "had been accumulated over the course of multiple decades and represented the entirety of the means that [the harvesters] used to earn their livelihoods and provide for their families", reads the lawsuit. Some may never be able to get back on the water.
Pier 45 housed approximately 8,000 crab traps, all of which were destroyed, Sarah Bates, treasurer for the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association (SFCBA), the group the represents most of San Francisco's crab harvesters, told Undercurrent News. Traps are welded metal covered in rubber, none of which stood up well to the fire and were deemed to be too compromised to survive being dropped in the water, she said
San Francisco's crab harvesters, who land nearly 2m pounds of Dungeness crab annually, are now preparing for the Dec. 23 opening of the season -- a weeks-late start due to test determinations of low meat yield. Most of those who are able to participate now have their traps loaded on to their vessels, Bates said. Previously they were being kept in driveways, yards and in other parts of the 10 acre-property near where Shed C previously existed.
The exact location of the shed has been cleaned and decontaminated, but the property remains vacant and a replacement shed is not currently being built, Bates said.
Photograph included in a lawsuit filed Dec. 16, 2020 in relation to the Pier 45 fire, in San Francisco, California.
Several of the harvesters won't be able to fish this season, she said.
"San Francisco’s crabbers have had a rough few years, with seasons getting canceled or shortened because of ocean conditions; and, like everyone, the pandemic has made everything harder," John Barnett, one of the plaintiffs and SFCBA's president, is quoted as saying in a press release. "To add to this getting all of your gear destroyed in a fire caused by someone else’s carelessness is a punch in the gut.”
John Mellor, another plaintiff and long-time crabber, is quoted as saying each of the harvesters are out hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear.
"Most fishermen don’t make a lot of extra money each year, so we don’t have a pot of savings that can be dipped into when something like this happens. It’s a desperate situation," he said. "The port needs to make this right.”
Campfires and barbecues next to flammable materials
The complaint, filed on behalf of the crabbers by Stuart Gross, a partner at Gross & Klein, in San Francisco, charges the San Francisco port authority with gross negligence for allegedly not managing and maintaining the facility and violating fire codes by "failing to install, inspect and maintain required and/or appropriate fire safety, prevention, and/or control equipment".
Photographs of the Pier 45 fire in San Francisco, California, included in a lawsuit filed Dec. 16, 2020
According to the complaint, the authority stored "its own highly flammable and/or explosive materials" in the facility and didn't ensure that an adequate water supply was available for firefighters. It allegedly took 45 minutes before firefighters were able to connect to distant alternative water sources.
Also, on top of all that, the port allowed "unhoused individuals" to collect inside the shed where they often started campfires and cooking fires on the asphalt floor, the lawsuit alleged. Doors were never locked and there was always one door open, the plaintiffs said.
That's is how the fire is believed to have started.
"In its investigation report concerning the fire, the [San Francisco Fire Department] identified a 'migrating ember associated with smoking materials or 'campfires' on the floor of the structure initiated by transient persons" as a potential cause of the fire," the complaint said. Also, a charcoal barbecue was observed by witnesses there and the remains of a barbecue were found in the location after the disaster, according to the complaint.
A barbecue grill found where the fire at Pier 45, in San Francisco, California, is believed to have started.
It was not uncommon for five or six unhoused people to congregate in Shed C at one time for shelter, with the COVID-19 pandemic apparently increasing the number. They tapped into the power from electrical outlets. There were only one or two security guards present at any one time, and they were responsible for monitoring and securing the entirety of Pier 45, which included three other large sheds and a total space of 10 acres.
"The unhoused individuals in the vicinity of Pier 45 knew how long it took for the security guards to complete their rounds, and knew the routes they took around the pier," the complaint said. "They would easily avoid the guards and disappear within the depths of Shed C where the security guards could not find them."
The community's survival
Pier 45 is the northernmost of San Francisco's numbered piers, located at the intersection of Taylor Street and the Embarcadero, the lawsuit explained. Eighty years ago it served as the last loading dock for World War II vessels headed to the Pacific theater of war. It remains home to two battle vessels, permanently docked and serving as museums.
The pier also plays host to the largest concentration of commercial fish processors and distributors on the west coast of the US, serving as a hub for sales and distribution, and Shed C has been a primary staging area for harvesters. Per written license agreements with the city, fenced-off lockers were provided to the fishermen in exchange for a monthly fee.
The rubble that remained of Shed C after the fire on Pier 45. Photograph included in a lawsuit filed Dec. 16, 2020.
"The lockers and designated floor spaces were used by plaintiffs as storage for all the necessary gear and equipment described above, including but not limited to crab and shrimp pots, fishing nets, boat parts, davits, anchors, sportfishing equipment, tools, and miscellaneous other items and property," the complaint said. "...Thousands of crab pots were stacked in and outside Shed C at the time of the fire, in addition to a wide variety of other valuable commercial fishing and sportfishing equipment, as well as other property."
The lawsuit doesn't ask for a specific amount of compensation, saying that it will prove the amount of damages suffered during the trial.
“San Francisco is not San Francisco without its fishing community,” Gross said. “For well over 100 years, San Francisco’s fishing community has been literally synonymous with the city’s waterfront. If we lose that community, the waterfront loses its soul.
“The fire at Pier 45 threatens that community’s survival, and the fire was preventable. When the port told the crabbers to store their gear in the shed, it assumed the obligation to make reasonable efforts to ensure that it was safe for that purpose. The port had ample notice of the myriad fire risks in Shed C, and every opportunity to mitigate those risks. It did not do so, and San Francisco’s fishing community has suffered the consequences. They deserve better.”
December 18, 2020 at 12:36AM
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San Francisco's crab fleet sues city over massive, gear-destroying pier fire - Undercurrent News
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