How To Keep Wildfire Smoke Out of Your Home

• July 20th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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The DC area spent much of last week under some of the worst air quality on record, as Canadian wildfire smoke pushed the region to code purple levels for roughly 42 hours. While weekend storms cleared much of the haze, shifting winds could bring smoke back to the area — and with fire season far from over, it is worth knowing how to keep the fine particles outside where they belong.

The first line of defense is sealing up the house: close windows and doors, and if the air conditioning is running, switch it to the recirculate setting so smoky air isn't being pulled in from outside. Homeowners with central HVAC systems can upgrade to a MERV 13 filter, which captures far more fine particulate matter than the standard filters most systems ship with, and run the fan continuously to cycle indoor air through it. For homes without central air — or for targeted relief in a bedroom or home office — a portable HEPA air purifier sized to the room does much of the same work. 

Just as important is not adding to the problem indoors. On smoky days, skip anything that generates its own particulates: candles, fireplaces, gas stoves where avoidable, and even vacuuming without a HEPA-equipped machine, which can kick settled particles back into the air.

Checking real-time readings at AirNow.gov before opening windows — even after skies appear to clear — is the simplest habit of all, since haze can look deceptively thin while PM2.5 levels remain elevated.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/how_to_keep_wildfire_smoke_out_of_your_home/24830.