Across the United States, people are already used to thinking of wildfires as seasonal rather than infrequent threats. As the annual acreage burned by wildfires increases, residential areas throughout the country are increasingly coming under threat. The reality is now much more alarming: in 2024, the U.S. saw 122% of the normal acres burned compared to the 10-year average, and fire seasons are starting earlier in the spring and extending later into autumn.
Residents in many regions of the U.S. must now prepare for fire season. As the fires grow larger and multiple fires burn simultaneously, air quality becomes an issue, even for people who live far away from the flames. Large-scale atmospheric circulation can transport wildfire smoke hundreds and even thousands of miles, affecting local air quality in places far from active fires. As of this writing, the Eastern U.S. has recently been inundated with smoke from Canadian wildfires.
Take time at the end of each year’s fire season to prepare for the following summer’s smokestorms.
Stay Safe
If you live in a region that is susceptible to wildfires (check your county’s emergency management website), your first priority is to plan for your immediate safety during a wildfire.
Prepare and practice a wildfire action plan well in advance of wildfire season. A good plan should include strategies for evacuation, communication with family members in case of separation, and plans for protecting pets and livestock. The offseason is also a good time to make your home and landscape more fire-resistant. Once you have prepared for fire, you can start to think about smoke.
Stay Healthy: The Growing Smoke Crisis
In addition to the immediate risk of flames, residents in areas that experience wildfires — and for many hundreds of miles beyond them — need to prepare for extreme air pollution during fire season. The scope of this threat has expanded dramatically in recent years.
The Expanding Health Impact
Recent research reveals the true scale of wildfire smoke’s health impact. Studies suggest that smoke exposure in the United States has increased 27-fold over the past decade. New research shows that wildfire smoke contributes to nearly 16,000 deaths each year across the U.S., with projections suggesting this could grow to almost 30,000 deaths annually by 2050.
A groundbreaking 2024 study found that fine particulate matter in wildfire smoke was responsible for 52,500 to 55,700 premature deaths in California alone between 2008 and 2018. Over the last six years, wildfire smoke has influenced trends in fine particle pollution in nearly three-quarters of states in the contiguous U.S., either stalling or reversing decades-long air quality improvements.
Understanding Air Quality Warnings
The U.S. AQI is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s index for reporting air quality. It is a scale that ranges from 0 to 500, where values below 50 indicate good air quality. Sensitive populations, such as individuals with asthma, seniors, and children, should reduce their exposure to outside air when AQI values exceed 100. Over 150, air quality is unhealthy for everyone.
Recent projections are sobering: by 2054, over 125 million Americans will be exposed to “red” air quality levels each year — a 50% increase from 2024. California’s Central Valley will bear the brunt of it, with Fresno and Tulare Counties likely facing three months a year of unhealthy air.
The EPA’s Smoke Sense app helps citizen scientists learn more about the health impacts of smoke and provides location-specific air quality information.
Protecting Indoor Air Quality
Under normal conditions, indoor air quality is often worse than outside air. During a smokestorm, the CDC advised everyone to remain indoors with the windows closed, but that page was recently removed as part of a government-wide purge of climate information. Start now to improve your indoor air quality before wildfires begin to burn.
The EPA recommends mechanical air cleaners with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, which can dramatically reduce indoor particle levels in some cases by more than 90%. For those without commercial air cleaners, the EPA provides guidance on making DIY air cleaners. However, they recommend using these only when commercial products are unavailable or unaffordable.
If you have a central HVAC system, choose a filter with a MERV 13 rating or as high a rating as your system can accommodate. Create a designated clean room in your home where household members can retreat to when smoke levels are high.
Updated Mask Guidance
If you wait until a smokestorm to buy filtration masks, you may find them out of stock. Recent guidance emphasizes that N95 and KN95 masks offer the best protection from wildfire smoke. By contrast, cloth masks, surgical masks, bandanas, and tissues provide limited or no protection against inhaling tiny airborne particles.
A NIOSH-approved respirator can reduce your exposure by a minimum of 10 times when correctly worn with proper fit. Plan ahead and buy them before a smoke event. Look for masks labeled “NIOSH” and either “N95” or “P100” with two straps that go around your head.
However, NIOSH-certified respirators do NOT come in sizes suitable for children. Focus on keeping the kids indoors, creating clean air rooms, and being ready to evacuate if necessary.
People with heart or lung disease should consult with a healthcare provider about respirator use, as these devices may increase breathing effort and carbon dioxide accumulation.
Speak Out: The Need for Systemic Solutions
Hotter, drier summers consistent with climate change are exacerbating wildfires around the world. Recent research indicates that global carbon emissions from forest fires increased by 60% between 2001 and 2023, with fire emissions from boreal forests in Eurasia and North America nearly tripling during the same period.
Forest Management: Progress Under Threat
In the U.S., traditional forest management is also part of the problem. A century of allowing the largest trees to be logged, total fire suppression, and nearly unchecked livestock grazing have created optimal conditions for the spread of wildfires.
Recent years showed signs of progress. The Forest Service treated a record 803,633 acres across 21 Wildfire Crisis Strategy landscapes in fiscal year 2024. It has invested in the treatment of 1.86 million acres since 2022. This work reduced wildfire risk to $700 billion worth of housing and critical infrastructure.
However, the Trump Administration has severely undermined these efforts. The administration has frozen funding for federal programs aimed at reducing wildfire risk and halted hiring of seasonal firefighters as part of broader cuts to government spending. About 3,400 Forest Service employees and 1,000 National Park Service employees were fired as part of efforts to shrink the federal government.
Federal agencies employed more than 17,000 wildland fire personnel last year, many in seasonal roles. This year, many workers had job offers rescinded just as they were set to begin training for the 2025 fire season. The freeze has cut off funding for projects such as prescribed burns to reduce future risk.
Organizations involved in forest management have been severely impacted. The Oregon-based Lomakatsi Restoration Project, which works to reduce hazardous fuels in Oregon, California, and Idaho, has stopped work on projects funded by federal programs that provided 65% of its $17 million budget. The organization’s executive director laid off 15 full-time employees after being told funding was frozen pending review.
The irony is stark: President Trump repeatedly blames poor forest management for catastrophic wildfires, including during his recent visit to Los Angeles burn areas, while simultaneously cutting the very programs designed to address forest management needs.
The Promise and Limitations of Prescribed Fire
Prescribed fire is one of the most common tools for preventing catastrophic wildfires, with the Forest Service conducting about 4,500 prescribed fires each year. Less than 1% of prescribed fires escape control, though escapes can have significant effects.
However, climate change is hindering the use of prescribed burns. New research indicates that climate change will result in the American West having 17% fewer safe days to conduct prescribed fires, with most reductions occurring in spring and summer when most prescribed burns are typically implemented. Winter may see a net 4% increase in favorable days, but before those days can be used for burns, adjustments in staffing and policy are required to capitalize on the safe fire window.
Policy and Funding: A Crisis of Contradictions
State policies, many of which are holdovers from the era of aggressive fire suppression, can discourage the use of prescribed fire. Limited burn days, complex permitting processes, and liability concerns create barriers for landowners.
The current federal situation presents glaring contradictions. While the United States routinely spends more than $1 billion per year to fight wildfires, including $3.5 billion in 2022, the Trump Administration has cut prevention efforts despite repeatedly calling for better forest management.
Trump’s proposed 2026 federal budget would impose an overall $3.8 billion reduction to the Interior Department’s $18 billion budget, including a $1.2 billion cut to National Park Service operations. The budget proposes consolidating federal wildland firefighting into a new service but does not offer a dollar figure for the proposed Federal Wildland Fire Service.
As one former Forest Service supervisor told the Montana Free Press, the contradictions are stark: “Calls to increase timber production on federal lands come alongside cuts to federal timber managers, and recommendations to give more state authority for timber production, park supervision, and wildfire control occur alongside budget cuts to state programs.”
States are attempting to fill the gap. As the Trump administration cuts the U.S. Forest Service’s budget, California has announced it is deploying an additional $72 million to reduce wildfire risk. Governor Newsom asked, “California is ‘raking the forests’ at a faster pace than ever before. Where’s the federal government?”
While 57% of California’s forests are federally managed, the state government manages only 3% of its forestland. A federal commitment to forest management and stable funding for wildfire prevention is essential to a comprehensive strategy that reduces potentially staggering home, business, and environmental losses as the climate warms.
Economic Costs Keep Climbing
The economic implications are staggering. Between 1980 and 2023, the United States experienced 22 wildfire events that individually caused more than $1 billion in damage, with 18 of these occurring since 2000. By 2050, the overall annual economic cost attributed to lives lost from wildfire smoke could reach $240 billion.
Unless these underlying conditions are addressed, we can expect increasingly frequent and severe wildfires and their associated smokestorms. Elected representatives need to hear from constituents who value clean air. Please write or call your congressional delegation and suggest that they support enhanced forest management practices and prescribed fire programs and take action to mitigate climate change.
The growing wildfire crisis demands individual preparation and systemic solutions. While we must protect ourselves and our families from immediate threats, the scale of the challenge requires coordinated action at all levels of government.
Editor’s Note: Originally published on October 22, 2018, this article was updated in July 2025.