Local officials, reporters spend day being 'firefighters' on Treasure Island

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Members of the San Francisco Fire Department shared some of the rigors of their job with elected officials and local reporters.

At their expansive training facility on Treasure Island, members of the International Association of firefighters local 798 helped participants into full protective suits - called turnouts - along with helmets and boots.

They were then treated like firefighters in training, sent into blinding smoke rooms, using the jaws of life in a drill simulating the rescue of people trapped following an automobile accident.

I took part in a drill using dogs to find firefighters pretending to be trapped in a collapsed building.

The union admits the event was also designed to lobby local officials about updating city firefighting equipment and to protest the planned closure of the Treasure Island Training Complex in 2024, without a planned replacement on the drawing board.