White smoke from a fire is billowing out the windows of a two-story home, and somewhere inside are three victims.
Rigs from San Francisco Fire Station 7 squeal onto the scene. The firefighters pry open the metal front door. A child is rescued from under the living room couch, and two adults are saved from an upstairs bedroom. The fire is extinguished. Forgotten, the victims languish in a puddle near the front door. One dummy’s head has snapped off, and its legs are missing. There’s always something burning at the Fire Department’s in-service training facility on Treasure Island. It’s where recruits learn to saw through a roof, douse a fire and rescue trapped victims. But soon it will be gone — the 4.82-acre facility leveled, planted with grass and turned into a park during Treasure Island’s development. It will leave the Fire Department with no facility to train new and veteran firefighters. ... "The development plan ultimately decided to use this land for other uses," development authority spokesman Bob Beck said. "There is no anticipated vision for keeping the facility at this point. Instead, it will be open space and parks. The city is looking at other alternatives for fire training in the future."