WUI - Wildlife Urban Interface Fire
A wildland urban interface (WUI) fire starts as a wildfire and turns into an urban conflagration. WUI fires are very toxic — they incinerate vehicles, rubber, plastics, electronics, appliances, batteries, building and household materials. A profusion of cancer causing substances such as asbestos, arsenic, chromium-6, dioxins, PAHs and VOCs are present in the smoke and ash that settles in the nearby community.
What is a WUI fire?
A wildfire is typically characterized as a blaze that consumes areas of wild vegetation such as scrub grass, bushes and trees. Wildfires can sometimes also burn human structures but typically the bulk of the material burn is organic and not man-made.
What is a wildfire?
It’s important to recognize that the Eaton fire was a WUI fire that likely generated a significant amount of fallout. As a result, post-fire testing and cleaning should account for the mixed materials burned and may need to differ from approaches used after a vegetation-only wildfire.