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Estimate of pollutant emissions from fires in the wildland urban interface
Citation:
Holder, A., J. Beidler, J. Vukovich, V. Rao, AND A. Ahmed. Estimate of pollutant emissions from fires in the wildland urban interface. The 3rd International Smoke Symposium, Raleigh, North Carolina, April 20 - 24, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation provides a review of the current literature of emissions of criteria and hazardous air pollutants from structure and vehicle fires. Emissions from the natural fuels are compared with emissions from structures and vehicles for wildfires that burn in the wildland urban interface to determine the impact from these fires.
Description:
Fires that occur in the wildland urban interface (WUI) often burn structures, vehicles, and the items contained within them as well as biomass in the natural landscape. Because these fires often burn near population centers, their emissions may have a sizeable impact on public health, necessitating a better understanding of criteria and hazardous air pollutants emitted from these fires, and how they differ from wildland fires. Previous studies on the toxicity of emissions from the combustion of building materials and vehicles have shown that these fires emit numerous toxic compounds such as HCN, HF, HCl, isocyanates, PAHs, dioxins and furans, and a range of toxic organic compounds (benzene toluene, xylenes, styrene, formaldehyde, etc.) and metals (Cr, Cd, As, etc.). We surveyed the literature to create a comprehensive list of emission factors of hazardous air pollutants from the combustion of building materials and compared them to those from wildland fires. Emission factors for some toxic compounds like polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and toxic organic compounds were 5 – 2,500 times greater than those from natural fuels. However, large gaps in the data remain, particularly on the emissions of toxic metals, dioxins, and inorganic gases like NH3, NOx and SOx. Additionally, accurate estimates of fuel consumption in the built environment and natural environments are still needed to understand the impact of emissions from fires in the WUI, particularly as we expect more wildland fires to extend into the WUI in the future.