MATIER & ROSS
More items: Firefighters thought Aaron Peskin was intoxicated at blaze, memos show.
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin was “clearly out of control” and appeared to be intoxicated the night he ripped into fire officials at the scene of a four-alarm blaze in North Beach, according to internal memos from the commanding officer and others at the scene.
On Tuesday, Peskin denied the allegation.
In a memo, Fire Department spokesman Lt. Jonathan Baxter, said, “I noted that Supervisor Peskin was uneasy on his feet and I could smell the odor” of alcohol.
“He appeared intoxicated, based on his red eyes, slow responses and an uneasy stance,” the lieutenant continued. “It is my opinion, based on my training and experience, that Supervisor Peskin was intoxicated.”
Two other ranking firefighters, Assistant Deputy Chief Anthony Rivera and Capt. Sherman Tillman, stated in separate memos that they “smelled alcohol” on Peskin.
In a report submitted two days after the St. Patrick’s Day fire, Fire Department Deputy Chief of Operations Mark Gonzalez said he arrived at 659 Union Street just as horns signaled firefighters to clear out of the building so the flames could be drenched with water.
“I noticed that Supervisor Peskin was in the middle of the street . ... he was yelling in the general direction of the (command post), waving his arms around and pointing his fingers at our members,” Gonzalez wrote in a March 19 memo to his boss, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White.
Upon seeing Gonzalez, the memo states, Peskin started yelling, “Gonzalez, Gonzalez, get over here! Your people have screwed this up ... why isn’t there any water on this fire.”
“There were many expletives laced throughout his emotional diatribe as he was pointing his finger at my face,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said he tried to explain the situation and told Peskin to stop distracting the firefighters.
Peskin’s response: “‘I’m going to destroy you,’ and he repeated it,” Gonzalez wrote. “He was also yelling, ‘Where is the chief ? I want her resignation. This starts at the top.’ ”
Later, Gonzalez, Baxter and Hayes White met with Peskin in the intersection of Columbus Avenue and Union Street in front of the burning building to try and explain their handling of the fire.
“Peskin became argumentative,” verbally attacked the chief and said Gonzalez was “unqualified” and an “idiot,” Baxter wrote in his March 21 memo to Gonzalez.
The chief, who had already received an angry call from Peskin on her cell phone as she was driving to the fire, responded by walking away.
The fire gutted the threestory building — a mix of retail, restaurants and largely empty apartments — but adjacent buildings were saved. No one was injured.
Fire brass say they had texted Peskin, who had been dining in nearby Chinatown, to alert him to the rapidly spreading fire in his district.
The Chronicle obtained the memos from the Fire Department through a public records request.
When asked Tuesday to comment on being intoxicated that night, Peskin, who was in a Board of Supervisors meeting, replied via text: “untrue.”
He has, however, since apologized to the chief for his conduct. Peskin also co-sponsored a resolution passed unanimously by the supervisors Tuesday commending the firefighters for their work on the fire. Cops for Alioto: Citing her “common-sense approach,” to city government, the San Francisco Police Officers Association has endorsed Angela Alioto for mayor.
“Her understanding of the city and her commitment for public safety make her the best choice,” said the association’s president, Martin Halloran.
If that’s fact, former Supervisor Alioto was the only choice the union had.
There was no way the police union was going to endorse either Supervisor Jane Kim or former state Sen. Mark Leno, whom they perceive as being anti-police.
The feeling is mutual — neither Kim nor Leno sought the cops’ backing.
And while the union had endorsed Supervisor London Breed in past elections, it pretty much broke ties with her when she joined the call for police reforms after the police shooting of Mario Woods in the Bayview in 2015.
Alioto, on the other hand, has a long and unbroken record of support for the police union, dating back to her days as a city supervisor in the 1980s and ’90s. She is also supporting the union’s Taser initiative on the June ballot.