Full-time firefighter/paramedics are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Paid on-call personnel are scheduled for emergency medical service coverage and provide on-call response during fire emergencies.

Thanks to a voter-approved city charter amendment authorizing funding, an $8 million renovation to four city fire stations is currently underway. The stations will receive larger equipment bay doors, gender-specific locker rooms, kitchens, fitness rooms and more.

The Brooklands station, on Auburn Road near John R, will have 2,000 square feet of extra space when completed later this summer. Sleeping areas for employees on a 24-hour shift include beds, desks and wardrobes, with lighting and alarm sounds designed for maximum impact. New windows keep the sleeping areas dark.

The funding, from the Assistance to Firefighter Grants program, was announced Friday by the office of U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas. The department will buy an aerial ladder truck and a heavy rescue truck.

The department's only rescue truck -- which is used for structure fires and major accidents, with its Jaws of Life extrication equipment -- was built in 1998. It'll now become a spare, to be used when and if the new one, to cost about $500,000, is sidelined for repairs.

Ladder 2, which is stationed at the Branch Street station, was built in 1995. Its replacement will cost about $830,000.

Fire Chief Jeff Winward said the new apparatus will save the department on maintenance costs.

"When they start to get 20 years old, they get pretty costly to maintain and repair," he said.

The Fire Department has been on a roll lately in obtaining federal grants.

Last September, the department won a $1.9 million grant to hire 12 new firefighters. Firefighters hired through that funding, as well as several others, recently joined the department after having completed training at the state's firefighting academy.

The dramatic chase and fiery crash also raised new questions about how the ambulance could have been taken off the steet and the age of the department's fleet, much of which has been replaced following concerns from a civil grand jury report last year.

San Francisco police Officer Grace Gatpandan said authorities got a call about 8 a.m. reporting the ambulance had been stolen from 55 Mason Street in the Tenderloin, and the driver was taking off toward the Bay Bridge. The driver, police said, was driving recklessly and struck at least one other car on Harrison Street.

Authorities used a GPS to track down the ambulance, and police chased it to the eastbound off-ramp of the island in between San Francisco and Oakland, according to Fire Department Lt. John Baxter.

At some point, the driver lost control and the ambulance crashed, and caught on fire. The square red truck was seen balancing precariously on what looked like a guardrail or median. Ferry rider Rasmus Mencke tweeted that he saw smoke on Treasure Island by the Bay Bridge tunnel stemming from the bizarre scene.