SAN FRANCISCO, December 16, 2020— Over twenty-five commercial fishers—who together make up the bulk of San Francisco’s crabbing fleet—filed suit today in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the Port of San Francisco (a subdivision of the City and County of San Francisco) was grossly negligent in its management and oversight of Pier 45, resulting in the destructive four-alarm fire that ravaged the pier on Memorial Day weekend of this year. The fire destroyed Pier 45’s Shed C, a more than 85,000 square-foot Port-operated facility in which the plaintiff fishers stored the fishing and crabbing gear upon which they depended to earn their livelihoods.
As alleged in the Complaint, the Port created or knowingly failed to prevent a number of dangerous conditions which culminated with the fire at Pier 45. For example, the Port knew that unhoused individuals frequently trespassed in Shed C – which was never locked and always had at least one open door – and knew that they regularly started camping and cooking fires inside the shed. The Port nevertheless failed to prevent the unhoused individuals from accessing the shed. The Port further failed: to maintain the poorly aged electrical systems in Shed C; to install required and appropriate fire safety, prevention, and mitigation measures, including sprinklers or a standpipe that the fire marshal had specifically directed the Port to install. The Port, in fact, allowed vehicles to be parked in the shed, after being specifically ordered by the fire marshal to prohibit such parking unless and until it installed sprinklers in the shed and took other measures. The Port likewise allowed dangerous flammable and explosive materials to be stored haphazardly within the Shed, including volatile fuels and piles of wooden pallets and garbage that the Port failed to clear. On top of these and other derelictions, the Port failed to ensure that an adequate water supply was available to firefighters at the time of the fire, preventing the fire department from taking quick action to mitigate its spread. The Plaintiffs allege that these and other acts and omissions by the Port were grossly negligent and violated various codes, regulations, and local ordinances intended to avert this exact type of catastrophe.
As a tragic result of this confluence of grossly negligent failures, the complaint alleges, the plaintiff fishers lost millions of dollars worth of equipment, losses that have hobbled their ability to engage in their usual fishing and crabbing activities, thereby incurring further losses. Many plaintiffs have been forced to scramble to secure new gear in time to partake in the 2020-2021 Dungeness crab season, but others have effectively been shut out of the industry to which they have dedicated their careers.
John Barnett, one of the plaintiffs and president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association, observed, “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. 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.”
Another plaintiff and long-time crabber and fisher John Mellor put it this way, “Each one of us lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear in the fire. 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. The Port needs to make this right.”
“San Francisco is not San Francisco without its fishing community,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Stuart G. Gross of Gross & Klein LLP. “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.” Gross continued, “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.”
The lawsuit is titled Burchell, et al. v. City and County of San Francisco.