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San Francisco fire and EMS response times

in

How long each area waits for a fire engine or an ambulance, from the call to the first unit on scene, and how often the city meets its own EMS goals.

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San Francisco fire and EMS response times in South of Market

Deviation from the citywide median by call group, and call burden per resident. Data through Oct 2026 (complete months) · source updated Nov 6, 2026.

In South of Market, a first responder reached 54% of medical emergencies within 4.5 minutes of dispatch in the twelve months to Oct 2026, against the city's 90% goal and 60% citywide. From the call to the first unit on scene, potentially life-threatening calls there had a median of 7.2 minutes, +2% against the citywide median, on a call burden of 380.9 per 1,000 residents, 4.0× the citywide rate (rank 1 of 38 neighborhoods). The goal is measured the city's way, from dispatch. The median runs from the call, the same measure used for police. Burden is incidents per resident (2020–2024 survey estimate).

Against the city's own goals, South of Market, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026: the share of responses on scene within the goal minutes of dispatch, against the Emergency Medical Services Agency's 90% target. It starts at dispatch, not at the call, so it is a different figure from the response times.
GoalThis areaCity's goalCitywideResponsesReading
BLS first responder54% within 4.5 min of dispatch90%60%7,839Below the goal
Ambulance, life-threatening (Code 3)91% within 10 min of dispatch90%86%7,067Meets the goal
Ambulance, not life-threatening (Code 2)88% within 20 min of dispatch90%89%6,159Within 10 points of the goal
Call group breakdown. South of Market, every call group, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026. "× city" is this area's calls per resident over the city's, with the city's rate beneath it. "vs city" compares its median, from the call to the first unit on scene, with the citywide median beneath it. Red is more than 10% slower than the citywide median, green more than 10% faster. Ranks are among the 38 neighborhoods with at least 1,000 residents: burden rank 1 has the most calls per resident, and response rank 1 has the slowest median. A median and its rank need at least 30 incidents.
Call groupIncidentsPer 1,000× cityBurden rankMedianvs cityResponse rankUnit reached
Potentially life-threatening9,826380.94.0× (city 95.8)1 of 387.2+2% (city 7.0 min)11 of 3897.5%
Non-life-threatening7,244280.84.5× (city 63.0)1 of 3815.9+7% (city 14.8 min)9 of 3894.1%
Alarm2,691104.32.5× (city 41.6)2 of 386.4+1% (city 6.4 min)19 of 3895.2%
Fire60323.42.9× (city 8.0)2 of 386.7+2% (city 6.6 min)12 of 3185.9%
Where the city meets its goals, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026: the share of responses on scene within 4.5 minutes of dispatch in each of the 38 neighborhoods with at least 100 responses, furthest from the city's 90% goal first, with the same share for 2016, the first full year in the data.
#NeighborhoodPast year2016ChangeResponses
1Visitacion Valley19%34%-15751
2Lakeshore29%51%-221,011
3Excelsior35%66%-311,434
4Presidio35%40%-5352
5Bayview Hunters Point36%61%-253,554
6Treasure Island43%59%-16198
7Twin Peaks43%58%-15246
8Financial District/​South Beach44%69%-253,942
9Outer Mission47%71%-241,129
10Portola49%72%-23734
11West of Twin Peaks51%67%-161,597
12Oceanview/​Merced/​Ingleside53%74%-21823
13South of Market54%70%-167,839
14Sunset/​Parkside55%69%-142,480
15Glen Park57%60%-3332
16Golden Gate Park58%77%-19454
17Bernal Heights59%70%-111,219
18Potrero Hill61%78%-17611
19Mission Bay61%77%-161,384
20Marina64%72%-81,075
21Russian Hill64%83%-19771
22Castro/​Upper Market65%85%-201,369
23Inner Sunset66%81%-15817
24Lone Mountain/​USF67%89%-22806
25Inner Richmond67%85%-18715
26Tenderloin68%77%-98,994
27North Beach69%80%-111,095
28Chinatown69%85%-161,123
29Mission69%84%-156,903
30Presidio Heights70%86%-16482
31Hayes Valley72%84%-121,716
32Noe Valley72%81%-9578
33Outer Richmond73%79%-61,462
34Haight Ashbury74%85%-11772
35Pacific Heights76%88%-121,094
36Japantown77%87%-10723
37Nob Hill78%91%-132,246
38Western Addition79%89%-102,483
Citywide60%75%-1565,493
Neighborhoods: burden against response. Potentially life-threatening calls, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026: neighborhoods by calls per 1,000 residents, with each one's median response against the citywide median.
#NeighborhoodPer 1,000 residents× citywideIncidentsMedianvs citywideReached
Citywide95.81.0×79,554
1South of Market380.94.0×9,8267.2+2%97.5%
2Tenderloin345.43.6×11,0876.5-7%97.5%
3Japantown211.72.2×8496.7-5%98.6%
4Financial District/South Beach191.82.0×4,6957.5+7%97.5%
5Mission157.61.6×8,6836.6-5%97.0%
6Western Addition133.91.4×2,9856.4-9%98.3%
7Nob Hill121.91.3×2,8686.4-9%97.4%
8Hayes Valley119.91.3×2,2636.7-4%97.7%
9North Beach114.41.2×1,2746.7-4%98.1%
10Chinatown114.21.2×1,3806.9-1%98.5%
11Bayview Hunters Point111.91.2×4,2248.0+14%97.6%
12Presidio99.21.0×3879.0+29%97.4%
13Treasure Island97.61.0×2377.3+4%98.3%
14Lakeshore96.31.0×1,1528.3+19%98.7%
15Mission Bay89.60.9×1,5777.0+0%97.8%
16Castro/Upper Market76.90.8×1,6887.0+1%97.5%
17Haight Ashbury62.40.7×1,0476.8-3%97.8%
18Outer Mission60.20.6×1,3457.7+9%97.4%
19Bernal Heights60.00.6×1,4456.9-2%97.1%
20Presidio Heights59.50.6×5866.3-10%97.8%
21Lone Mountain/USF58.80.6×9426.9-2%98.1%
22Pacific Heights58.40.6×1,3326.6-5%98.0%
23Marina57.70.6×1,3466.9-1%97.0%
24Russian Hill55.10.6×9576.8-2%97.9%
25Visitacion Valley53.80.6×8909.1+29%98.0%
26Portola52.70.5×7797.2+2%97.8%
27West of Twin Peaks50.50.5×1,8527.3+4%98.3%
28Potrero Hill45.70.5×7326.9-2%97.8%
29Excelsior44.90.5×1,6658.0+14%98.4%
30Glen Park43.50.5×3767.00%97.9%
31Inner Richmond42.80.4×8626.7-4%96.6%
32Outer Richmond41.20.4×1,7736.5-7%98.4%
33Seacliff39.70.4×986.9-2%99.0%
34Sunset/Parkside38.10.4×2,8627.1+2%98.4%
35Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside37.60.4×9167.0+1%98.0%
36Inner Sunset37.00.4×1,0037.0+0%98.4%
37Twin Peaks35.30.4×2727.5+8%99.3%
38Noe Valley30.00.3×6786.8-3%97.9%

Method

Source: DataSF Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services Dispatched Calls for Service (nuek-vuh3 on DataSF). The data has one row per unit dispatched, combined here into one row per incident using the first unit on scene. Response time runs from when the call is received to when the first unit arrives, the same measure as the police page. Incidents cancelled or marked duplicate before service are left out. Call groups are the department's own: potentially life-threatening, non-life-threatening, alarm and fire. Burden divides by the area's 2020–2024 American Community Survey population estimate, the population every rate on this site uses (the crime page method explains how it is fit to each area). It is blank for areas under 1,000 residents. There is no published target for these groups measured this way, so they are compared only with the citywide median. The city's goals section uses the city's own measure instead: the Emergency Medical Services Agency's response-time file (faug-73ss on DataSF, the source of the city's response-times dashboard). It has one row per incident and unit type, with the fastest unit's time from dispatch to arrival, after the city's own checks: medical events only, no missing, negative or over-120-minute times, and no ambulance that transported a patient within a minute of arriving. The goals are the agency's: a basic life support unit within 4 and a half minutes, and an ambulance within 10 minutes on life-threatening (Code 3) calls and within 20 minutes on other (Code 2) calls, each 90% of the time. That file has no location. Its incident number links it to the dispatch data, which gives the neighborhood. Supervisor districts come from each call's location in today's district boundaries. The dispatch data's own district field uses the boundaries in force when the call was logged, so a district's history would jump where the boundaries changed. Advanced life support first-responder rows are in the file, but they have no published goal and are not scored.

Every figure here is also in https://sfresponse.org/data/fire.json.

Call group breakdown

Deviation from the citywide median

Zero is the citywide median for the same call group in the same month. Months with fewer than 30 incidents are left blank.

Neighborhoods: burden against response