"As wildfires burn closer to urban areas, scientists are trying to better catalog the vast array of pollutants that firefighters may be exposed to"
"After unprecedented wildfires ripped through homes, businesses, and schools in the Los Angeles area earlier this year, Stephen Spriggs and his crew of firefighters took over. The Eaton and Palisades wildfires—among the most destructive in California’s history—killed 31 people and destroyed more than 15,000 buildings. The devastation was surreal, says Spriggs, a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). “It was shocking to see.”
Wading through piles of rubble, charred wooden structures, and metal fragments, Spriggs and his crew assisted people returning to their ruined homes. “A lot of what we did was help people open up their safe or get any kind of [valuable] belongings or anything salvageable in their house,” he says. For 2 weeks, his team spent most hours of the day in the ravaged Pacific Palisades—an affluent neighborhood between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean that’s dominated by multimillion-dollar mansions and a significant number of electric vehicles.
Such areas at the wildland-urban interface are at high risk for wildfires. The blazes can turn particularly destructive because of the flammable plastics and electronic parts in modern homes that fuel these fires. And when such plastics and electronic materials burn, they release toxic chemicals into the air. Firefighters working at the front line to control and extinguish wildfires are exposed to dozens of potentially dangerous compounds that can increase their chances of developing cancer, cardiovascular disease, and early death.
“That's the biggest danger of our job now,” Spriggs says. “It’s not so much the fire [per se], but it’s what’s burning.”"
Priyanka Runwal reports for Chemical & Engineering News November 7, 2025.
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