Wildland Urban\nInterface (WUI) Emissions: Laboratory\nMeasurement of Aerosol and Trace Gas from Combustion of Manufactured\nBuilding Materials

Wildfires are increasing in intensity and more often\nthreatening\nthe wildland urban interface (WUI) where buildings and homes coexist\nwith the natural environment. WUI emissions have not been as well-studied\nas emissions from vegetation. Thus, there is a need to quantify the\nemissions of building materials used in home construction under flaming\nand smoldering conditions to study their impacts to human health,\nvisibility, air quality, and climate. Here, in a controlled laboratory\nsetting, we quantify emissions of aerosols and trace gases including\nformaldehyde, particulate matter, and black carbon. We focus on the\ncombustion of traditional single-source wood-based construction fuels.\nOur results indicate that, similar to natural fuels, the aerosol optical\nproperties were more related to combustion conditions than the fuel\ntype. Overall, we observed significant variability in the gas and\nparticle emissions. Consistent trends include high formaldehyde (HCHO)\nand carbon monoxide (CO) emissions for smoldering conditions and higher\ncarbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>), nitrogen oxides (NO<sub><i>x</i></sub>), and black carbon for flaming conditions. These observations\nhighlight the need to better characterize emissions for materials\nin the built environment to assess large-scale climate and human health\nimpacts of fires at the WUI.