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Supervisors hear city plans for wildfire season: shelters, outreach and heat resilience work underway
Summary
A multi-department hearing reviewed San Francisco’s preparations for wildfire smoke and extreme heat, including thresholds for respite-center activation, targeted outreach to vulnerable populations, distribution of portable air cleaners by SFUSD, and a Heat & Air Quality Resilience Project to coordinate long-term interventions.
The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee convened a hearing on July 22 to review San Francisco’s plans for the 2021 wildfire season and to assess preparedness for smoke and extreme heat.
Supervisor Matt Haney called the hearing, calling climate-driven wildfire and smoke impacts "one of the greatest health threats" for the city. Department of Public Health presenter Matt Wolf described health impacts—from respiratory and cardiovascular stress to overwhelmed EMS—and said climate change has created recurring, compounding hazards.
Adrienne Bekele of the Department of Emergency Management described four response components: risk-based public messaging, three categories of respite locations (public locations, city-operated weather-relief centers, and community-serving sites), targeted outreach and wellness checks for vulnerable populations, and mutual-aid coordination with neighboring counties. DEM said thresholds for opening weather-relief centers include temperatures at or above 90°F for two consecutive days or forecasts of very unhealthy/purple air quality for two or more days; locations would be scaled to event severity.
Melissa Higby of the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning outlined the Heat and Air Quality Resilience Project, a cross-department initiative with four implementation teams (existing buildings, community readiness, emergency response, green infrastructure) and early funding from NOAA to map urban heat islands. SFUSD’s Viva Mogi reported distribution of 242 portable air cleaners to schools so far and plans to procure several hundred more before the start of school.
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing described wellness checks, N95 distribution to unsheltered residents and MERV-13 filtration upgrades for temporary shelters. Public Works and SFMTA partners were present to answer operational questions. Public commenters highlighted urban wildfire risks inside the city—Stern Grove, Mount Sutro and McLaren Park—and urged additional West-Side preparedness.
The committee voted to file the hearing; staff said departments will provide follow-up briefings and that supervisors would receive incident-specific location maps for respite centers when activated.
Next steps: departments will continue outreach to vulnerable communities, expand the network of community-serving respite sites, and report back to the committee with implementation updates.
