Indoor Air Quality During Wildfires: Practical Steps to Protect Your Home

Each wildfire season, smoke reminds us that the boundaries we draw between outside and inside are more permeable than we imagine. Across fire-prone regions, millions of households face the quiet infiltration of fine particulate matter — invisible, persistent, and harmful to the most vulnerable among us. Yet this is not a problem without remedy: modest, affordable interventions, applied with foresight, can meaningfully shield the air we breathe at home. The deeper lesson may be that preparedness, not panic, is the most protective instinct we possess.