©2025 This excerpt taken from the article of the same name which appeared in ASHRAE Journal, vol. 67, No. 10, October 2025.
Preserving IAQ & Health During Wildfire And Prescribed Burn Events
By Steven Emmerich, Gregory Nilsson, Abdel Darwich
Steven Emmerich, is acting group leader of the Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. Gregory Nilsson is research council officer, Construction Research Center, National Research Council Canada. Abdel Darwich, P.E., HFDP, is a principal in the Sacramento office of Guttmann and Blaevoet Consulting Engineers.
As the smoke from wildfires and prescribed burns increasingly impacts communities worldwide, ASHRAE has published new Guideline 44-2024, Protecting Building Occupants from Smoke During Wildfire and Prescribed Burn Events, aimed at preserving indoor air quality (IAQ) during these events. It provides background information on smoke from wildland fires and the health impacts from exposure to that smoke. It also outlines best practices for building design, operation and maintenance to reduce those health impacts. It is aimed at most buildings other than single family homes.
The effort to write the guideline was kicked off in July 2020 when ASHRAE Guideline Project Committee (GPC) 44P was officially formed. The multidisciplinary roster included wildfire smoke and health scientists, HVAC designers, building facility engineers and filtration experts. In late 2020, the committee wrote and published an interim document titled “Planning Framework for Protecting Commercial Building Occupants from Smoke During Wildfire Events” in response to the building community’s pressing need for guidance during an intense North American wildfire season.1 The planning framework included information for building managers on developing a smoke readiness plan, preparing for smoke events by having supplies on hand and testing procedures in advance and knowing when and how to implement measures in their plans.
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More Wildfire Response Resources
ASHRAE offers several additional resources to help understand and apply best practices for dealing with the effects of wildfire smoke. See them here.
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