Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
December 30, 2021, saw the ignition of what would become the most destructive fire in Colorado history. The Marshall fire burned more than 1,000 buildings in Boulder’s foothills before snow put it out on January 1, 2022. Thousands more homes were damaged in the 6,000-acre conflagration.
Hundreds of University of Colorado Boulder students, faculty and staff were among the evacuees. When they returned home to residences that still smelled like a campfire, there was little information available to indicate what toxins they might be exposed to, and how they should clean it up.
So researchers with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder, some personally affected by the fire, turned their skills to understanding the aftermath. Dozens of projects sprang up to address what happened; the impacts on people, their pets and the environment; and how future similar events might be mitigated. Researchers found ongoing impacts on indoor air quality long after the blaze was out, for about six weeks. They also discovered some routine cleaning practices were ineffective, and might even generate additional airborne toxins.
In this session from the ScienceWriters2023 conference Joost de Gouw, professor of chemistry and a CIRES fellow, shares the story and results from this work. De Gouw's presentation, part of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing's New Horizons briefings and moderated by New Horizons Program Director Amber Dance, was given on October 9, 2023.
December 30, 2021, saw the ignition of what would become the most destructive fire in Colorado history. The Marshall fire burned more than 1,000 buildings in Boulder’s foothills before snow put it out on January 1, 2022. Thousands more homes were damaged in the 6,000-acre conflagration.
Hundreds of University of Colorado Boulder students, faculty and staff were among the evacuees. When they returned home to residences that still smelled like a campfire, there was little information available to indicate what toxins they might be exposed to, and how they should clean it up.
So researchers with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder, some personally affected by the fire, turned their skills to understanding the aftermath. Dozens of projects sprang up to address what happened; the impacts on people, their pets and the environment; and how future similar events might be mitigated. Researchers found ongoing impacts on indoor air quality long after the blaze was out, for about six weeks. They also discovered some routine cleaning practices were ineffective, and might even generate additional airborne toxins.
In this session from the ScienceWriters2023 conference Joost de Gouw, professor of chemistry and a CIRES fellow, shares the story and results from this work. De Gouw's presentation, part of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing's New Horizons briefings and moderated by New Horizons Program Director Amber Dance, was given on October 9, 2023.
