A new set of heavier and more immovable concrete barriers went up to deter the sex work trade on Capp Street this weekend, but the local firefighters union took to Twitter to decry what they see as a public safety risk.

It was a busy weekend of developments in the Capp Street sex work crackdown that recently saw barriers placed on Capp Street to deter the nonstop parade of curiously slow-driving, erm, “patrons.” It became clear on the barricades’ first weekend of February 10-12 that the barriers weren’t really working, because people would just move them or drive right through.

So on Friday, Mission Local reported that bigger, heavier concrete barriers were on the way. Then the Chronicle reported that the concrete barriers were installed Saturday, with Supervisor Hillary Ronen’s office telling the Chronicle these would “be there for about a month.”

Yet on these concrete barriers’ very first day, NBC Bay Area reports they drew a slew of very perturbed tweets from your local firefighters union. “We had a large #fire with rescues on the 300 block of Capp.  If you were trapped in a building how long would you like to wait? @LondonBreed,” tweeted San Francisco Firefighters Local 798. “We want to work with DPW, MTA [and] any other dept who wishes to close down a street in a safe and responsible manner.  Parades, Sunday Streets, etc all do it in a way that keeps the residents safe.  This is just the opposite.”

They weren't done, and continued to tweet. “Someone who doesn't understand our work might say, ‘what's the big deal?’ but to someone whose home is on fire or who is having a medical emergency, seconds can mean life and death,” the union tweeted. “We recently had a large fire on 20th Street just blocks from here. @HillaryRonen.”

This tweetstorm continued as the firefighters union engaged with a number people who responded in defense of the barricades. “There are movable ones that we use on Sunday Streets or for Carnival, St Patrick's Day, etc. If people being trafficked is the issue, I am going to go out on a limb and say this won't fix it,” they say in one response. When another person noted they see similar construction barriers on streets all the time, the union shot back that “If you drive around SF, every road that is doing construction 1) has a permit and 2) usually has a person who is onsite helping with traffic.”

And since the tweets were calling out Supervisor Hillary Ronen, Ronen herself jumped into the discourse. “I appreciate you all more than you know but trying to stop other really dangerous situations, violence, pimps assaulting sex workers, chronic stress and lack of sleep of residents,” she said in response. “Hoping to work all together to consider and address all these threats to safety.”

Not finished, Ronen added, “Twitter isn’t the place to have serious policy conversations. I’m working deeply on the issue. If you’d like to join, I’d welcome it. In the meantime, the barriers have afforded the residents including countless children the 1st nights of peace they’ve had in a long time. Call me.”

We should point out that the firefighters union tweets are not official communications from the SF Fire Department. This is the firefighters union, and just like the local police union known as the SF Police Officers Association, this union gets mouthy and political on social media in ways that you don’t see from other unions like, say, an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. It’s probably too early to assess whether these new concrete barriers are effective at keeping the peace on Capp Street, or whether they pose some enormous danger. But given this weekend's discourse, we can see that any strategies to address the Capp Street nighttime mayhem may be quick to become politically contentious.

Related: Supervisor Hillary Ronen Introduces Legislation To Legalize Sex Work [SFist]

Image: @SFFFLocal798 via Twitter