Hours after Daniel Lurie was inaugurated as mayor Wednesday, he tried to light a firecracker outside a Chinatown restaurant. Moments later, paramedics escorted a woman into an ambulance as blood poured from her head.
The woman’s husband, Sang Seog Ahn, said she had been struck in the head by a firecracker.
Ahn and his wife were guests at an inauguration day banquet for Lurie at the Far East Cafe. Ahn said the injuries were not serious, and his wife was not hospitalized; EMTs treated her in an ambulance before the couple drove home to San Jose.
“The fireworks hit my wife’s head directly,” he said.
Lighting firecrackers is a celebratory tradition in Chinatown. Lurie had leaned in with an incense stick to light some but after several attempts was unsuccessful. He handed the lit incense to another celebrant, who sent the firecrackers flying as the mayor looked on.
A spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department confirmed that an ambulance was dispatched to the restaurant at around 6:30 p.m. with reports of a person bleeding but did not have additional details.
Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for the mayor, did not confirm the extent of the woman’s injuries during the banquet.
“Sounds like the Fire Department shared some info with you so would refer to them,” Lutvak said via email.
At a separate event later that night, The Standard asked Lurie if he had contacted the victim. The mayor did not acknowledge the question, and his representatives declined to answer questions. A representative for Lurie reached out afterward to make sure Ahn’s wife was OK.
Ahn said he believes the Lurie administration will be “great,” and the mayor is “trying to clean all of San Francisco.”
“I’m satisfied,” he said.