San Diego Fire Fuels Concerns

SAN DIEGO — Mayor Jerry Sanders says a fuel tanker explosion near Qualcomm Stadium that sent black smoke hundreds of feet into the air and burned for hours Wednesday is another sign the city needs better fire protection.

It took firefighters nine minutes to get to the blaze, rather than the six minutes that is the goal for major incidents, officials said. No one was hurt in the explosion, which occurred near a fuel storage facility.

Despite years of warnings from the Fire Department that the Mission Valley area -- with 15,000 residents and numerous shopping centers, hotels and high-rises -- needs a fire station, the City Council has never authorized one.

While praising the 80 firefighters for keeping the fire from spreading, Sanders said the council will need to review the Mission Valley station issue despite the city’s overall financial troubles.

After the Cedar fire of 2003, in which hundreds of homes outside Mission Valley were destroyed, voters in San Diego failed to approve an increase in the hotel-motel tax to boost fire protection.

The council has authorized a temporary station for Mission Valley to open soon, but the cash-strapped and tax-averse city lacks money for a permanent facility.

After decades of tight budgets and refusal of officials to raise taxes, San Diego has fewer firefighters and fire stations than virtually any of the nation’s other large cities.

A report done after the Cedar fire concluded that the Fire Department was hampered by old equipment and inadequate training.