Los Angeles Fires Made Deadlier and More Toxic by Plastic
Los Angeles fires pose a unique danger due to the prevalence of plastic in modern homes, which releases hazardous chemicals when burned. Southern California’s skies fill with toxic smoke, a mix intensified by the widespread use of plastics and petrochemical materials, reported The Atlantic.
‘This is why we can’t position firefighters directly in front of these houses,’ explains University of California Fire Battalion Chief David Acuna. Lingering toxic air makes it unsafe for firefighters to stay after rescues.
Modern homes are filled with plastic materials. Common items like couches often feature polyester fabric and polyurethane foam, which release toxic hydrogen-cyanide gas when burned. Furniture frames might be solid wood or engineered wood held together with polymer-based glues. Vinyl flooring, foam insulation, laminate countertops, and synthetic textiles dominate interiors, while even house paints typically consist of pigments suspended in liquid plastic.
Wildfire smoke poses serious health risks, causing thousands of premature deaths annually and contributing to heart and lung problems, low birth weight, and cognitive decline. Burning trees release harmful gases like carbon monoxide, CO₂, and PM2.5 particles that penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream. When homes burn, the hazards multiply, releasing hydrogen cyanide, hydrochloric acid, dioxins, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). ‘When you’re burning a home or an entire neighborhood, we don’t have a handle on the breadth of VOCs being emitted,’ says atmospheric chemist Nadine Borduas-Dedekind. These gases can react in the atmosphere to form even more toxins. While N95 masks block PM2.5, only gas masks protect against these harmful gases.
In 2020, the Fire Safety Research Institute conducted an experiment, setting fire to two identical living rooms — one furnished with synthetic materials and the other with natural ones. The synthetic room, featuring a polyester couch, engineered wood table, and synthetic carpet, erupted into full-room flashover in less than five minutes, producing thick, toxic smoke. By contrast, the natural-material room, with cotton cushions and hardwood furniture, took over 30 minutes to reach flashover and generated significantly less smoke. This disparity highlights why fire fatalities have risen, even as the overall number of home fires has declined since 1980.
