BOULER, Colo. — Three years after the devastating Marshall Fire in Colorado, researchers have released a new study that showcases potential concerns for people returning to homes that survived.
The study highlights the potential for future guidelines when it comes to people returning to a home who find ash in and around their property, something many people in El Paso County can relate to following the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest Fires.
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado and released to the public earlier this month.
“Our research suggests that there could be important health impacts for people returning to smoke- or ash-damaged homes after a fire and that we need to have systems in place to protect them,” said Colleen Reid, associate professor of geography and co-author of the studies.
The papers were published Dec. 23in the ACS Environmental Science & Technology Air, are the first to explore air quality inside smoke- and ash-damaged homes and to assess the health impacts on people who live in them. More than a thousand structures were destroyed during the Marshall Fire after it started Dec. 30, 2021.
"We know that those structures can emit more toxic pollutants than vegetation when burned," Reid added. "And so there was concern about what was in the air and then additionally, we started getting contacted by people whose homes were not destroyed. And at first, they felt really lucky. But when they went into their homes, they saw ash everywhere and it smelled different in their homes. And so they were reaching out to many of us at the University of Colorado who study wildfires to ask what should we do? We don't know if this is safe to go back to or not."
At six months, 642 people responded to a survey from the researchers; 413 had responded at the one-year mark. About 55% of respondents reported symptoms that they attributed to the fire at the six-month mark. Symptoms included headaches, sore throats or a strange taste in their mouth. The authors can't say which chemicals caused the reported health impacts. However, measurements in one home found high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene, a carcinogen found in gasoline and Diesel exhaust.
"Those who found ash inside were three times as likely to report headaches compared to those who didn’t find ash; those who reported an odd odor were four times as likely to report headaches compared to those who did not. People with the same symptoms tended to cluster together, according to computer mapping analyses," a news release from CU Boulder reads. "For example, those living near destroyed homes were far more likely to report a strange taste in their mouth."
A companion study also examined air quality following the fire. Air quality inside one home post-fire equaled that of downtown Los Angeles on a high pollution day in the 90s.
"We compare it to L.A. because because we have great data on air quality in Los Angeles," explained CU Chemistry Professor Joost De Gouw. "And the level of benzene, for instance, that we saw in these homes was similar to what we saw in L.A. in the in the 90s. So, yes, that's concerning. You know, the L.A. Air has been cleaned up since then significantly. But that gives people some perspective of the levels that we saw."
Researchers believe it is important to document the impacts of Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fires to improve emergency response and remediation guidelines for people whose homes were damaged, but not destroyed, by a WUI fire.
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