Crabbers sue Port of S. F. over pier fire
San Francisco crab fishers whose equipment was destroyed by a fire that swept through a Fisherman’s Wharf warehouse in May sued the city’s port for millions of dollars in damages Wednesday and said port officials had failed to take numerous safety measures or prevent homeless people from lighting fires in the building.
The earlymorning fouralarm blaze on May 23 at Pier 45 sent flames 100 feet high and wiped out Shed C, a 1928 storage warehouse for commercial fishers, causing more than $ 12 million in property losses. The San Francisco Fire Department found that the fire had been accidental but did not determine a cause, although it said it may have been started by electrical equipment or by a spark from the warehouse floor.
The suit was filed in Superior Court by more than two dozen fishers who together make up the bulk of San Francisco’s commercial crabbing fleet, their lawyers said. They accused the Port of San Francisco of knowingly creating dangerous conditions that may have caused or worsened the fire — including an unlocked entry that allowed homeless people to enter Shed C, where they were often observed starting campfires and cooking fires on the floor.
Port officials “knew that unhoused individuals trespassed in Shed C but failed to prevent the trespassing” by adding security staff or locking the entry, the suit said.
It also said the shed had an old electrical system with loose extension cords that the port failed to inspect or maintain. The port allowed Shed C tenants to store flammable and explosive materials in the facility and allowed sightseeing boats from the Red and White Fleet to dump waste oil there, the suit said.
In addition, the suit said, the city’s fire marshal told port officials several times between 2017 and 2020 that
vehicle parking could not be allowed in the shed unless the port installed a fire sprinkler system and standpipe, and an updated ventilation system, but the port disregarded the advice to save money.
“If the port had properly maintained and managed Shed C ... the fire would not have occurred in the first place, or would not have spread as intensely and rapidly as it did,” the suit said. It seeks unspecified damages for the fishers’ losses and punitive damages.
“Each one of us lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gear in the fire,” said plaintiff John Mellor, a longtime crabber. “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.”
Asked for comment, the port deferred to City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office, where spokesman John Coté said, “The fire was a tragedy, and our hearts go out to the crabbers, fisherman and others who suffered. But we also have a duty to San Francisco taxpayers, and the city was not responsible for that fire.”