How Commercial Buildings Can Stay Ahead of Wildfire Smoke
Wildfire smoke is a year-round concern for facility managers across North America, not just for buildings near active fires.
During the 2023 Canadian wildfires, NOAA estimated that more than 86 million people across the East Coast and Midwest metropolitan areas were exposed to fine particulate pollution above the federal health standard, with pollutants traveling thousands of miles from the source.
What Wildfire Smoke Does to a Commercial Building
The problem for facility owners and operators is more complicated than keeping smoke out of interior spaces.
Wildfire smoke contains both particles and gases. Roughly 90 percent of the total particulate mass is PM2.5, the fine particles small enough to penetrate deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream.
The smoke also carries nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOC), and other harmful molecules that irritate the respiratory tract and eyes and produce strong odors.
The World Meteorological Organization reports that PM2.5 concentrations following extreme fire events often run 10 to 20 times higher than the levels the World Health Organization recommends.
These particles are tiny, typically between 0.05 and 0.4 microns, which makes them harder to capture than most of the airborne particles a commercial building is designed to filter.
A wildfire-specific...
Read Full Story: https://cleanair.camfil.us/2026/06/25/how-commercial-buildings-can-stay-ahead-of-wildfire-smoke/
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