Friends and loved ones beamed with pride Thursday at the graduation ceremony for the San Francisco Fire Department\u2019s 137th class of recruits, 47 people who will now take on the responsibility of firefighting.<\/p>\n
The ceremony was held at Archbishop Riordan High School and included San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, Fire Chief Dean Crispen, Police Chief Derrick Lew, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and Supervisors Chyanne Chen and Myrna Melgar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so fired up!\u201d said Lurie to the gathering. \u201cWhat a great way to kick off a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rev. Armando Gutierrez, chaplain at the San Francisco Fire Department, provided a spiritual message, praying for \u201ccourage when they are afraid, wisdom when they must make quick decisions, strength when they are weary, and compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gutierrez also asked the recruits to respect the dignity of every person they serve and prayed for the new firefighters\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n
Lurie praised the department for a recent rescue at Dead Man\u2019s Point in the city\u2019s Lands\u2019 End area.<\/p>\n
What it means to be a firefighter<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a few days ago, your brothers and sisters in the Fire Department successfully executed one of the most technical operations I have seen since becoming mayor,\u201d he said. \u201cOver seven hours, in the dead of night, racing extreme conditions, you all successfully rescued a man who was stranded on the side of a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor credited a rise in foot traffic and \u201cenergy\u201d in the city to the Fire Department and the safety it provides.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LNM-20260619-FIREGRADS-02.jpg\")
In a partial framegrab from video, members of the 137th San Francisco Fire Academy pose for a group photo during commencement exercises at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco on Thursday, June 18, 2026. (San Francisco Fire Department via Facebook)<\/p>\n
It was then Crispen\u2019s turn to welcome his new charges. He spoke about what it means to be a firefighter and that it is much more than simply \u201cbravery, toughness, intelligence, ingenuity, teamwork,\u201d but a department that innovates and uses the latest technology and is constantly educating firefighters on new best practices.<\/p>\n
The hopeful air in the room was a result of hard work being made tangible. They were finally firefighters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are houses filled with your new brothers and sisters. Your new family,\u201d said Capt. Dustin Novo, who is in charge of recruit training. \u201cSoon, you will be pinned by the Chief of the Department. You will walk outside of this theater, and your life will forever be changed. And this change was because of you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friends and loved ones beamed with pride Thursday at the graduation ceremony for the San Francisco Fire Department\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7972,149427,46329,7776,93,4306,4853,14680,133816,16424,1492,101,4773,103,102,104,106,105,4736],"class_list":["post-368481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-brooke-jenkins","tag-dean-crispen","tag-derrick-lew","tag-emergency-services","tag-featured","tag-featured-news","tag-firefighters","tag-first-responders","tag-graduation-ceremony","tag-mayor-daniel-lurie","tag-public-safety","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-fire-department","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sfpd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}