ALL BURNT UP: CHANGES IN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES ON AIR QUALITY

Wildfires damage habitats, ecosystems, infrastructure, and human life, while also contributing significantly to air pollution. It seems almost impossible to go a year without a wildfire. But has that always been the case, has that changed over time, and what are the consequences? Our project aims to investigate the extent of the change in wildfires in California and their impacts on air quality using two case studies of Woolsey Fire in 2018 and Bobcat Fire in 2020. A set of time series was created to study the trends of wildfire counts and acreage burned using the historic wildfire data sourced from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) from 1900s to 2023. We also created maps using ArcGIS to visualize the impacts of two wildfire events on air quality of Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) concentrations acquired from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The air quality stations that are within 40km from the fire burnt boundaries are included for analysis. For each air quality station, a time series of air quality readings was created for pre- and post-fire wildfire events. The results show that there has been an increase in both the frequency of wildfires and the acreage they have burned, with the most destructive in the past decade. We have also observed sharp increases in PM2.5 concentrations during the two wildfire events, pushing the air quality to levels detrimental to the health of both vulnerable and general populations. Analyzing air quality time series pre- and post-fire could inform the implementation of public health mandates, retrofitting housing for improved safety, and establishing future evacuation zones.