Nearly three years after the devastating Marshall Fire destroyed over one thousand homes in Colorado, a research study conducted by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder seeks to answer some of the questions raised by the disaster.
In the days following the fire, concerns emerged among residents who still had homes standing about the impacts of smoke on their health and homes.
These concerns prompted CU Boulder to assemble a team of engineers, chemists, geographers and other scientists to begin analyzing the data as soon as possible.
Joost de Goux, a CU Boulder chemistry professor and one of the main researchers, was helping set up measuring equipment inside of a Superior home within ten days of the fire.
“What was unique about the Marshall fire is it happened right next to Boulder, Colorado,” noted de Goux. “We had all these scientists with all their equipment that could start making these measurements.”
The homes acted like sponges, soaking up smoke from the fire and slowly releasing it back inside.
“We had expected that these things would be gone within hours from these homes, but in fact, it took days to weeks,” de Goux explained. “That was a surprise and something that we still don't quite understand.”
The numbers showed that the concentration of several pollutants was much higher than normal at the onset of the study.
The pollution inside the homes was comparable to urban air in Los Angeles in the 1990s, but the pollutant percentage dropped down to 20% of the initial value in about five weeks.
The pollutants they were analyzing are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can be toxic. Before the air went back to normal, the team explored practical ways to mitigate VOCs. “We open windows and that makes the air inside cleaner,” said de Goux. “We also built these do-it-yourself air cleaners that have activated carbon, and they were also very effective at making the air cleaner.”
The air cleaners cost about $80 to make with parts from local hardware stores. They’re constructed out of a box fan and pour pleated air filters with activated carbon. While the cleaners were running for only an hour, they measured a more than 50% decrease in VOCs. Unfortunately, the pollution levels would quickly increase once the cleaners were turned off again.
Professor de Goux is relieved to finally be releasing their research after nearly three years.
“It takes time, and that can be frustrating to the public,” said de Goux. “It's frustrating to us, quite frankly. We know quite a lot very quickly, and we'd like to share that, but it's better to get the most out of these data so that you're completely confident about your results.”
If you would like to read about the results of the study yourself, you can check it out by following this link.You can also look at CU Boulder’s companion study, analyzing the long-term health effects of living near the fire area, by following this other link.
This story was originally published by Ethan Carlson at Scripps News Denver.
