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San Francisco fire and EMS response times

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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 Potrero Hill

Deviation from the citywide median by call group, and call burden per resident. Data through Sep 2026 (complete months) · source updated Oct 12, 2026.

In Potrero Hill, a first responder reached 61% of medical emergencies within 4.5 minutes of dispatch in the twelve months to Sep 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 6.9 minutes, -1% against the citywide median, on a call burden of 46.1 per 1,000 residents, 0.5× the citywide rate (rank 28 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, Potrero Hill, Oct 2025 to Sep 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 responder61% within 4.5 min of dispatch90%60%618Below the goal
Ambulance, life-threatening (Code 3)87% within 10 min of dispatch90%86%556Within 10 points of the goal
Ambulance, not life-threatening (Code 2)92% within 20 min of dispatch90%88%486Meets the goal
Potrero Hill, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026, by call group, from the call to the first unit on scene. Each group compared with its own citywide median; a median needs at least 30 incidents.
Call groupMedianvs citywideUnit reachedIncidentsPer 1,000 residentsvs citywide rate
Potentially life-threatening6.9 min-1.4% (citywide 7.0)97.7%73846.10.5×
Non-life-threatening14.7 min-1.1% (citywide 14.9)95.3%55634.70.6×
Alarm6.5 min+2.1% (citywide 6.4)96.3%46028.70.7×
Fire6.8 min+4.1% (citywide 6.5)89.7%1569.71.2×
Where the city meets its goals, Oct 2025 to Sep 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 Valley20%34%-14752
2Lakeshore29%51%-22999
3Excelsior34%66%-321,445
4Presidio35%40%-5351
5Bayview Hunters Point36%61%-253,477
6Twin Peaks42%58%-16248
7Financial District/​South Beach44%69%-253,830
8Outer Mission46%71%-251,110
9Treasure Island47%59%-12204
10Portola50%72%-22739
11West of Twin Peaks50%67%-171,558
12South of Market53%70%-177,786
13Oceanview/​Merced/​Ingleside54%74%-20831
14Glen Park54%60%-6322
15Sunset/​Parkside55%69%-142,479
16Golden Gate Park58%77%-19461
17Bernal Heights59%70%-111,199
18Mission Bay61%77%-161,385
19Potrero Hill61%78%-17618
20Castro/​Upper Market64%85%-211,354
21Marina65%72%-71,053
22Russian Hill65%83%-18778
23Inner Sunset66%81%-15827
24Tenderloin67%77%-109,073
25Inner Richmond67%85%-18693
26Chinatown68%85%-171,133
27North Beach68%80%-121,077
28Lone Mountain/​USF68%89%-21792
29Mission70%84%-146,798
30Presidio Heights70%86%-16479
31Hayes Valley71%84%-131,711
32Noe Valley71%81%-10584
33Outer Richmond74%79%-51,476
34Haight Ashbury74%85%-11735
35Japantown76%87%-11719
36Pacific Heights76%88%-121,107
37Nob Hill77%91%-142,193
38Western Addition80%89%-92,489
Citywide60%75%-1565,045
Neighborhoods: burden against response. Potentially life-threatening calls, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026: neighborhoods by calls per 1,000 residents, with each one's median response against the citywide median.
#NeighborhoodPer 1,000 residents× citywideIncidentsMedianvs citywideReached
Citywide95.41.0×79,204
1South of Market379.84.0×9,7977.2+3%97.3%
2Tenderloin347.73.6×11,1636.5-7%97.5%
3Japantown211.42.2×8486.7-4%98.7%
4Financial District/South Beach187.92.0×4,6007.5+7%97.6%
5Mission156.61.6×8,6296.7-5%96.9%
6Western Addition133.21.4×2,9686.3-10%98.5%
7Nob Hill120.31.3×2,8326.5-8%97.4%
8Hayes Valley119.21.2×2,2506.7-4%97.5%
9Chinatown115.31.2×1,3946.9-1%98.6%
10North Beach113.21.2×1,2606.7-4%98.3%
11Bayview Hunters Point109.51.1×4,1327.9+13%97.7%
12Treasure Island99.61.0×2427.2+3%98.4%
13Presidio98.21.0×3838.9+27%97.4%
14Lakeshore96.11.0×1,1508.3+19%98.5%
15Mission Bay89.70.9×1,5797.1+1%97.8%
16Castro/Upper Market76.90.8×1,6887.1+1%97.5%
17Bernal Heights59.60.6×1,4377.0+0%97.1%
18Haight Ashbury59.40.6×9966.7-4%97.4%
19Outer Mission59.30.6×1,3257.7+9%97.4%
20Pacific Heights58.90.6×1,3456.6-6%98.2%
21Lone Mountain/USF58.40.6×9366.9-2%97.8%
22Presidio Heights58.30.6×5746.3-10%97.9%
23Marina57.40.6×1,3387.00%96.9%
24Russian Hill55.40.6×9626.9-2%98.2%
25Visitacion Valley54.00.6×8949.1+30%98.6%
26Portola52.50.6×7777.2+2%97.9%
27West of Twin Peaks49.50.5×1,8147.3+5%98.3%
28Potrero Hill46.10.5×7386.9-1%97.7%
29Excelsior45.20.5×1,6778.0+14%98.5%
30Glen Park42.00.4×3637.0+0%97.5%
31Inner Richmond41.80.4×8426.7-4%96.8%
32Outer Richmond41.70.4×1,7956.5-7%98.4%
33Seacliff38.90.4×967.0-1%100.0%
34Sunset/Parkside38.20.4×2,8677.2+2%98.5%
35Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside37.80.4×9216.9-1%98.0%
36Inner Sunset37.30.4×1,0117.00%98.5%
37Twin Peaks35.20.4×2717.5+8%99.3%
38Noe Valley30.30.3×6846.9-2%97.7%

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.

Burden and response, side by side

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