Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.”
But even though his home is secure, for now, it will be a long time before he and his family feel safe enough to go back. Every room in the house, he said, was covered in ash, dust, soot and dirt that the high winds had blown inside. “My 5-year-old son, wife, dog and I don’t want to be living in a toxic wasteland.”
As residents start returning to neighborhoods ravaged by fire, they are contending with a slew of toxic hazards in the lingering smoke and ash that experts say can cause breathing problems and worse.
When neighborhoods go up in smoke, they burn all manner of human-made materials — vehicles, lead pipes, paint, plastics — which can release toxic smoke and fumes that can linger. A recent study found that even for homes that are spared destruction, smoke and ash swept inside could adhere to rugs, sofas and drywall, creating health hazards that can remain for months.
“There are so many people who have lost their homes in this, and that is devastating,” said Colleen Reid, who studies the health effects of air pollution at the University of Colorado Boulder, and who led the research. “But even the people who feel lucky that their home is fine — they could actually be exposed to lot of toxic materials,” she said. “The wind will get through every crack.”
That was a particular problem, Professor Reid said, because some people may be more likely to move back more quickly or to tackle cleanup themselves if their insurance companies don’t acknowledge this kind of ash and soot damage. And sifting through ash could send hazardous particles back into the air. There was a move in some states to try to force more insurance companies to compensate for smoke and ash intrusion, she said.
Smoke and overall air quality continued to be a risk, said Yifang Zhu, a professor in environmental health at the University of California, Los Angeles. Soot and other fine particles, known as PM2.5, can penetrate the lungs and the heart and can even enter the bloodstream, affecting the entire body.
Ironically, a weakening of the Santa Ana winds that might aid firefighting efforts also meant more smoke would stick around, she said. And air quality readings, which focus on particulate matter pollution like soot, were also not a good indication of the other complex air pollution hazards that the fires had unleashed, she said.
The typical air quality index doesn’t capture volatile organic compounds, for example, that can cause headaches and nausea and are linked to cancer and other illnesses in the longer term. And N-95 masks aren’t as effective against those other pollutants.
“There were so many things that burned, and so many other air toxics,” she said. “That’s why you might smell something, even if air monitors don’t pick it up.”
For people returning to homes in affected neighborhoods, there are steps they can take to protect themselves, she said. Carbon cartridge respirators work better against toxic air pollution than masks. Children and the elderly, as well as people who are pregnant or who have asthma or underlying respiratory or heart conditions, shouldn’t participate in cleanup.
Seek medical attention for any serious symptoms that arise — chest pain, wheezing, heavy coughing — and avoid strenuous exercise. Where possible, stay indoors, and run air purifiers fitted with activated carbon filters, on top of HEPA ones. “It’s just a good idea to be careful,” Dr. Zhu said.
