We are just about halfway through Oregon Ready, following the Eugene Water & Electric Board's Pledge to Prepare to be “2 weeks ready” for disaster situations.
This month, the focus is on preparing our homes for wildfire season, inside and out.
For many people in Oregon, wildfire season doesn’t just mean flames, it means weeks of unhealthy air.
Poor air quality has become a regular part of summer in our region, and public health officials say it’s something we need to pay close attention to.
Poor air quality on the rise in Oregon
“Many days of bad air quality is really a recent phenomenon,” said Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, the Public Health Officer for Douglas County. “We look back in Douglas County and we look back into Deschutes County and the number of bad air days per year, and it's really so many more over the last 15 years than it was before that. And so that really is a negative effect on people's lung health.”
Some are especially vulnerable. Dannenhoffer said that includes babies because they're small and they breathe fast, people with underlying respiratory disease such as asthma or COPD, and seniors because those in older age groups have decreased lung capacity.
The Oregon Health Authority recently released new guidelines for children and youth which rely on the AQI readings.
Dannenhoffer said Douglas County Public Health’s epidemiology team has seen a correlation between poor air quality days and admissions to the local hospital’s emergency room for respiratory distress and respiratory function.
One way to stay safe is to get in the habit of checking the Air Quality Index, or AQI.
Vanessa Becker with the Douglas County Public Health Network says checking the AQI should be routine. “Just like when we look at the weather report, is it gonna rain? Looking at what is the air quality and how do I need to adapt my behavior and my activities for that day,” she said.
There are a number of ways to do that.
You can check AirNow.gov, the OregonAir app, county monitoring sites, or even neighborhood-level data.
In Douglas County, officials recently installed six PurpleAir sensors — small monitors that give real-time, hyper-local air quality readings. They help fill in the gaps between larger monitoring stations. Becker said that effort was intentional.
“We looked at where there weren't PurpleAir monitors, in the county, particularly really remote rural areas, and on the coast as well,” said Becker. “And so we talked with community partners, fire stations, community organizations, and had those installed, and so now they're up and running in. And, and they show up on the PurpleAir map.”
Anybody can purchase a PurpleAir monitor. Becker said they usually run around $200 to $300. They can be connected to a community network of PurpleAir monitors, or owners can choose to just keep them in their own spaces for their own use.
You can find AQI readings for hundreds of sites in Oregon at PurpleAir’s website.
The idea is simple: the more you know about what’s in the air around you, the better decisions you can make. And when air quality drops, those decisions can make a real difference.
If you do need to be outside, wearing a mask can help — especially the kind we became familiar with during the pandemic.
Dannenhoffer noted that “for the ultimate protection, we'd be using a mask that has N95 or greater capacity. They do prevent about 95% of the particles from reaching your lungs. So for example, if the AQI is 200, which is pretty terrible, using the mask gets down to 10, which is pretty good.”
Inside the home, the focus shifts to keeping the air as clean as possible.
That can mean using an air purifier—or even a less expensive do-it-yourself filter with a box fan. You can attach one HEPA air filter to the back of the box fan to make one, or for a more robust version using four filters. But if you think you might want to go the DIY route, it’s best to prepare now, since the fans and filters sell out fast when the smoke settles in.
Personal note here: After the Holiday Farm Fire, I built one of those box fan filters- the filter turned black within days.
“When you look at those filters that are so black after just a few days, you realize that absent those filters, that’s what your lungs would look like,” said Dannenhoffer.
It can be difficult to purify an entire home with a small air purifier, so another recommendation is to create a dedicated clean air space. That means picking one room, sealing the windows, adding an air cleaner, and placing a towel under the door.
Beyond smoke: dealing with ash
Smoke is one part of wildfire season, but it’s not the only one.
Ash can also settle across entire neighborhoods, coating outdoor spaces, gardens, and entryways.
So is that ash just messy, or are there health concerns?
Brooke Edmunds with the OSU Extension said it’s a little bit of both. “Your first concern would be to think about your health concerns. So there’s a lot of particulate matter that’s in that ash, and so you do need to handle it with care.”
One thing to consider is the source of that ash. If it’s from wildfires that did not involve structures, the health impacts are lower than if the ash is coming from homes or other outbuildings. With the latter, the ash could contain more harmful particulates.
“You may treat that very differently than if it's just your typical forest fire ash where it's coming from wood or other plant materials,” said Edmunds. In those cases, she recommends using a lot more caution and care.
The earlier advice for wearing an N95 mask to deal with smoky air days applies to dealing with ash in your garden or yard as well.
When you clean up, Edmunds says less is more. “What you don’t want to do is walk through the ash and then bring the ash back into your house,” she said.
Edmunds recommends focusing on areas near your house: the walkway to your front door or to your trash cans, for example. And be gentle when you clear the ash — think light sweeping.
“Lots of times folks want to reach for something like a leaf blower — avoid that,” she said. “So you don’t want to kick up this ash — anything that’s bringing those particulates back up where you can breathe that in, or your pets can breathe that in is something that you want to avoid.”
For gardeners, there’s some reassurance too: If the ash is from wildfires, and not structures, it’s not much of an issue for most plants in your garden.
“Let’s say it’s a tomato fruit and you can still see that tomato color through the ash so it’s not this very thick layer, it’s going to be something that you can still process to make it safe to eat.”
That involves rinsing your vegetables outside to keep that ash outdoors, then bring it in and give it one or two more rinses. Edmunds acknowledged that if the ash is on leafy greens like spinach or lettuce, it could be a lot more difficult to remove.
OSU’s Extension Service website offers tips for cleaning produce, safely removing ash from yards and gardens, and can answer questions through their county extension offices.
The larger message in all of this — and in our Oregon Ready series — is preparation.
Wildfire smoke and ash may be seasonal—but they’re increasingly common.
And being ready for these eventualities before those poor air quality days will ensure you’ll have what you need to stay safe.
As we gear up for fire season, have N95 masks on hand, and consider getting an air purifier — or having the supplies to make one on hand.
And if the ash comes, you’ll be prepared to deal with it safely.
In our next segment we turn to hardening the outside of your home as part of this journey towards disaster preparedness.
Find the Oregon Ready series at KLCC.org.
