HCAI webinar urges hospitals to design for wildfire resilience to keep operations running

The Department of Health Care Access and Information and the Hospital Building Safety Board held a roughly one-hour webinar for hospital owners, designers and local planners on wildfire and wildland-urban-interface (WUI) readiness, stressing that hospitals should aim to maintain operations during wildfire events rather than merely prevent structural damage. "The real objective is maintaining operations during degraded or exigent conditions," said Janice Chung, fire marshal for Redwood City and San Carlos fire departments and a member of the Hospital Building Safety Board.

The session framed the guidance as an excerpt from HCAI's design guide for planning and preparing for disasters and as a consolidation of existing code and agency materials now collected under Title 24 Part 7. "Part 7 is a one-stop shop" for provisions previously scattered across CBC Chapter 7A, the California Fire Code and other authorities, said Nancy Timmons, chief fire and life safety officer for the Department of Health Care Access and Information, Office of Statewide Hospital Planning and Development.

Speakers said the WUI designation and fire hazard severity zone maps can trigger mandatory design and operational requirements that affect budgets and timelines. Nancy Timmons urged designers and owners to check both Cal Fire maps and HCAI/OSHPD map layers and to verify zone designation with the local authority having jurisdiction because "locals can put it in a different classification that's more stringent than what's shown here." Early verification, she said, reduces the risk of costly redesign later.

The webinar covered two linked tracks: building hardening and operational continuity. On the building side, presenters reviewed assemblies and components called out in Part 7 that may be more stringent in WUI zones: roof coverings and eaves, vents and mesh, exterior wall assemblies and coverings, glazing and doors, decks, canopies, and accessory structures such as trellises. Nancy Timmons noted testing and listing requirements (including CSFM-listed assemblies) and said designers must coordinate architectural and mechanical specifications to ensure compliance.

On operations, presenters emphasized filtration, air monitoring and testing, and redundancy planning. "Upgrading filters to the MERV13 or better can put a real stress on [an HVAC system]," Gary Dunker, executive director of design and construction for Cedars-Sinai Health Systems and a member of the Hospital Building Safety Board, said, urging facilities to validate HVAC capacity before installing higher-efficiency filters. He recommended indoor particulate monitoring and pre-designated clean-air smoke zones for critical spaces, plus stockpiling replacement filters and portable HEPA units as part of a readiness strategy.

Speakers also pressed generator and fuel logistics: test run times, ensure fuel supply and emergency electrical connections for pumps, and plan for supply-chain and road-disruption scenarios. Dunker told a concrete example from a past fire: "So when the day tanks ran out of fuel, the hospital went black," to underline the operational consequences of missing emergency-power linkages.

Operational planning recommendations included regular, pre-season testing of HVAC smoke modes, damper controls and pressure relationships; written checklists and exercises for staff; coordination with local fire and emergency management for pre-fire planning and surge logistics; and compartmentation strategies to isolate and protect critical areas. Speakers said shelter-in-place is the default hospital strategy and should be prioritized in design; evacuation is a last resort when the building itself is overtaken by fire.

For owners and design professionals, presenters recommended five pillars: confirm WUI applicability and fire-hazard classification early; carry WUI requirements into the basis of design before schematic design; establish cross-discipline coordination protocols; align design decisions with operational goals; and keep facility leadership engaged through design and construction.

The webinar closed with a Q&A (including questions about OSHPD risk-category tables and essential-facility classification) and contact guidance for follow-up. Presenters asked attendees to download the PDF slides and submit code-specific questions to the webinar support address given during the session.