Get a hygienist’s smoke test for your claimGet a restoration crew out
Fire and smoke in San Francisco: the local record
Fire response in San Francisco is the San Francisco Fire Department [1]. Established in 1866, the San Francisco Fire Department today serves an estimated 1.5 million residents, visitors and workers within San Francisco's 49 square miles, providing fire suppression, fire prevention and emergency medical services; its history runs from the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 to the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. [2]
SF Department of Public Health's May 2023 Wildfire Smoke and Health report states that the November 2018 Butte County Camp Fire claimed 85 lives and destroyed 18,804 structures, that its smoke pushed San Francisco's Air Quality Index over 150 ('unhealthy') for 12 straight days, peaking at 250, and that the smoke forced San Francisco's schools to close because many of those facilities lack adequate ventilation to protect against smoke intrusion. [3] SF Department of Public Health's May 2023 Wildfire Smoke and Health report says fall wildfire smoke events are especially likely to impact the San Francisco Bay Area when they coincide with the Diablo Winds, the October and November northeasterly winds that bring hot, dry air from the Great Basin through the Central Valley and over the Coastal Range, and that many of San Francisco's most severe smoke events, including the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire, the 2017 Napa/Sonoma wildfires and the 2018 Butte County Camp Fire, occurred during Diablo Wind conditions. [3]
What those numbers mean for a San Francisco household is simple: after every one of those events, more buildings stood in the smoke than burned, and the standing buildings are the ones whose owners are told the damage is “just a smell”. It is not; it is residue, and it is measurable.
What a San Francisco restoration crew does
The form above reaches both trades that a smoke loss in San Francisco needs. Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIHs) and environmental consultants do the testing — surface and air samples, an accredited laboratory, a report an adjuster has to answer. Fire damage restoration technicians, also called disaster restoration specialists, do the cleaning — chemical sponges and HEPA vacuums for the soot, air scrubbers and thermal fogging for the odor, and extraction and drying for the water the fire department used.
- San Francisco soot removal — chemical sponges on painted surfaces, HEPA vacuuming of every horizontal surface, wet cleaning of the oily residue a protein or synthetic fire leaves.
- Odor — air scrubbers during the work, thermal fogging or hydroxyl treatment after it, sealing of framing that still off-gasses in a San Francisco attic.
- Firefighting water — extraction and structural drying with dehumidifiers and air movers, metered until the San Francisco house is dry.
- HVAC — the system carried the smoke through the San Francisco house; ducts, plenum and air handler inspected and cleaned to ANSI/IICRC S590.
- Contents — pack-out, inventory, cleaning or documented disposal of what the smoke reached in San Francisco.
The work standard is ANSI/IICRC S700 [4]; the crew credential to ask for in San Francisco is the IICRC FSRT [5]. Before the crew cleans, the hygienist samples — a San Francisco claim that skips that step has no evidence of scope.
Permits, licensing and the California rules that apply in San Francisco
San Francisco jobs answer first to the California statewide contractor rules, then to the local permit desk. CSLB requires a current contractor license for any job that needs a building permit, uses employee labor, or is valued at $1,000 or more for combined labor and materials. [6]
Verify any San Francisco contractor through Contractors State License Board [7]; the California page on this site covers the licensing regime in full.
The claim itself is governed by the California Department of Insurance. The California smoke damage claims guide on our sister site lays out the deadlines and the complaint route; United Policyholders [8] explains why the CIH test is the lever when a San Francisco adjuster calls the residue dust.
The roof after a San Francisco fire
Embers, radiant heat and the fire department’s ventilation cuts damage decking, trusses and insulation, and a San Francisco smoke test does not measure any of that. Ventilation holes and fire department damage [9] explains what the crews cut and why; the National Roofing Directory’s California roofing contractors hub lists licensed roofers, and the picker below opens it. The California restoration page covers the rest of the state.