Environmental Impacts of Fires at the Wildland-Urban Interface

In this January 31, 2025, webinar, scientists from Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the University of Colorado Boulder shared information about the environmental hazards of smoke, data collected since the January 2025 fires, and lessons learned from previous similar fires.
This event was co-sponsored by the Keck Institute for Space Studies, Resnick Sustainability Institute, and Linde Center for Global Environmental Sciences.
Panelists included:
Haroula Baliaka, Graduate Student in Environmental Science and Engineering, Caltech
Joost de Gouw, Professor of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder
Sina Hasheminassab, Science System Engineer, JPL
Jessica Neu, Assistant Division Manager, JPL
Lauriane Quenee, Senior Director for Environmental Health and Safety, Caltech
Francois Tissot, Professor of Geochemistry and Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, Caltech
For more information, visit: scienceexchang...

[@hrock8081]

As someone who lives in Pasadena, I can’t tell you how invaluable it is to have some of the brightest minds in the world studying this event. Thank you so much!

[@jsaxonberg]

Thank you all so much for this presentation and your work! The Eaton Fire is a tragedy that will affect the Pasadena/Altadena community for generations. We are at least lucky to have some of the brightest minds in environmental sciences living through this tragedy with us and here to advise us with facts and sound, rationale advice.

[@SDongil]

For the future, and to address some concerns, include an environmental epidemiologist and toxicologist.

[@curiousgridlock]

The disambiguation at the beginning was very helpful. It's rare to see jargon explained at the beginning of a talk.

[@1962beachboy]

Did you take any dust samples in the fire zone in Altadena? There are many homes here standing. My feeling is that West Altadena received the bulk of contaminants. The press and others continue to claim that winds blew to the South, I disagree. Generally speaking in Santa Ana wind events the wind blows from east to west across upper Altadena. In the early morning hours it was doing exactly that. How do I know this? I've lived here for 30 years and I stayed and did all that I could to protect our home and others. If you would like some ash that's actually from Altadena, let me know.

[@Ruby-o2f]

Thank you for sharing! Is the deck available?

[@caltech]

The presentation slide deck can be found at scienceexchange.caltech.edu/documents/30679/CaltechFireWebinar_013125.pdf