Emissions from burned structures in wildfires as significant yet unaccounted sources of US air pollution
Structure fires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are becoming more frequent and destructive, yet their emissions of air pollutants remain poorly quantified and are not included in national inventories. Here we present a conterminous-scale inventory of WUI-related structure fire emissions in the United States from 2000 to 2020. A small number of highly destructive events dominate structure fire emissions-the 20 most destructive fires account for 68% of total carbon monoxide emissions. Structure fire emissions are more spatially concentrated than vegetation fire emissions, and in several states emissions of specific hazardous air pollutants such as hydrochloric acid exceed those from all anthropogenic sources combined. We show that structure burning in wildfires is strongly influenced by fire-conducive weather, and destructive structure fires are more likely to occur in forested and urbanized landscapes. These results reveal structure fires as a major source of toxic air pollution, with important implications for air quality, public health, and fire management.
Authors
- John T. Abatzoglou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7599-9750)
- Wenfu Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0107-4496)
- Amara L. Holder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6443-5298)
- Jennifer K. Balch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3983-7970)
- Johannes Uhl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4861-5915)
- Kelley C. Barsanti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6065-8643)
- L. K. Emmons (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2325-6212)
- H. M. Worden (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5949-9307)
- Ronnie Abolafia‐Rosenzweig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6169-6430)
- Christine Wiedinmyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9738-6592)
- P. F. Levelt
- Maxwell Cook (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4865-5025)
- Stefan Leyk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-4853)
- Lise A. St. Denis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7010-9632)
Institutions
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- Environmental Protection Agency (US)
- Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (NL)
- Research Triangle Park Foundation (US)
- University of California, Merced (US)
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (US)
- Joint Research Centre (IT)
- Research Applications (United States) (US)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66292-9
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.21
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Open Philanthropy Project
- National Institutes of Health
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- University of Colorado Boulder