The Pride of San Francisco

"Toughness doesn 't have to come in a pinstripe suit

The fire is a five-alarmer, one of the most spectacular in San Francisco since World War II. Two giant wooden piers on the city's downtown waterfront are burning out of control, hurling giant orange flames against a nighttime Pacific sky. As scores of fire fighters scramble to uncoil hose lines and position aerial platforms, a slight figure tightly wrapped in a flame-resistant fire fighter's coat steps carefully through the debris in open-toed shoes. Above the roar of high-pressure pumps, she quizzes battalion commanders and...