EPA Scientist Serves as Air Resource Advisor Trainee at the Lookout Fire
Published April 30, 2024
Wildfires can devastate infrastructure and emit enormous amounts of smoke impacting the health of local populations, yet there is limited knowledge of when and where these smoke impacts will occur. To fill information gaps, develop tools, and reduce the impact of smoke from wildfires, EPA partners with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)-led Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program (IWFAQRP). The IWFAQRP trains Air Resource Advisors (ARAs) to serve on wildfire incident management teams.
ARAs are technical specialists who provide expertise on wildfire smoke, serving communities and first responders by conducting smoke monitoring, modeling, forecasting, and communicating these analyses to those impacted. Becoming an ARA involves classroom and field training, including deploying to a wildfire to work as a trainee alongside an experienced ARA.
In fall 2023, EPA’s Amara Holder was deployed as an ARA trainee to the Lookout Fire in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. Holder trained under the guidance of Josh Hall, the ARA program deputy director.
“ARA trainee deployments on wildfire incidents are critical steps in becoming an ARA, where trainees get one on one mentorship developing skills, producing forecasts, and working with incident management teams and partners,” Hall noted. “The USFS and the IWFAQRP are grateful for EPA’s participation in the program, which illustrates the partnership between agencies as they work together to address significant wildfire and public health crises.”
Holder and Hall collaborated with state and local agencies and the incident management staff such as medical personnel, meteorologists, and fire behavior analysists to identify areas at risk of excessive smoke impacts. Additionally, they provided guidance to the public through daily smoke outlooks posted on the incident Facebook updates and the EPA-USFS AirNow Fire and Smoke Map.
A suite of tools helped Holder and Hall monitor hazardous pollutants around the fire, including use of a prototype of EPA’s Vehicle Add-on Mobile Monitoring System (VAMMS) known as VAMMS-X. The VAMMS-X is a self-contained, battery powered, sensor package that can be used in any vehicle and simultaneously monitors particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide, and black carbon—the sooty black material emitted from burning fossil fuels. This device is a recent addition to EPA’s Wildfire Smoke Air Monitoring Response Technology (WSMART) pilot, which is part of a federal government response to address the growing threat of wildfires and related smoke impacts that are a public health concern in the United States.
Holder and Hall used the VAMMS-X, along with other sensors such as Portable Environmental Beta-Attenuation Mass Monitors (E-BAMs) and Lascar Data Logger pens—portable, real time carbon monoxide sensors— to measure PM and carbon monoxide along roadways, near the fire where wildland firefighters were exposed to high smoke levels, and in areas surrounding the fire where heavy smoke was settling.
The Lookout Fire provided a unique opportunity for smoke exposure data collection. For example, VAMMS-X allowed scientists to simultaneously monitor PM and carbon monoxide, which provided more information on the connection of these two harmful pollutants. Holder noted a strong correlation between the two pollutants when PM was at hazardous concentrations, and while scientists had observed this connection in emissions research studies, the Lookout Fire provided some of the first combined PM and carbon monoxide exposure data where people were living and working. Datasets collected during the fire can advance the understanding of the relationship between PM and carbon monoxide and facilitate more effective guidance on when to initiate carbon monoxide monitoring programs and when protective action is needed.
Sensor data indicated that firefighters and individuals living in areas near the fire were at risk for carbon monoxide exposure. To address potential health risks, Holder and Hall helped educate locals about the risk of indoor carbon monoxide exposure, as it is not filtered out by standard air cleaners. Holder and Hall provided guidance on how to avoid carbon monoxide exposure-related sickness by seeking fresh air in times when carbon monoxide concentrations are elevated. Additionally, Holder and Hall gave daily carbon monoxide concentration updates to the on-site incident medical team so they could protect emergency responders through carboxyhemoglobin testing, which measures levels of carbon monoxide in the blood, and could help identify firefighters at risk for adverse health effects.
Another area for data collection centered around the potential for super fog, which the USFS describes as “a combination of smoke and water vapor that produces zero visibility over roadways.” Super fog can form when there is low temperature, high relative humidity, and smoke is present. Smoke from the Lookout Fire impacted a busy highway that connects Eugene in the west and Bend in the east making super fog a potential concern for this fire.
Holder and Hall used air quality, meteorological and satellite data to monitor the potential for super fog. With satellites unable to pinpoint at-risk areas at night, which is when super fog is most likely to occur, and minimal measurements on the ground, such events can become dangerous and difficult to accurately predict. During deployment, Holder identified gaps in roadway monitoring, noting the need for increased roadway sensors that could alert for conditions when super fog is likely, or smoke concentrations are high. Timely sensor data allows local authorities to issue accurate public notices when potential super fog conditions threaten local populations.
“One of the scientific benefits of Air Resource Advisor deployments is that they provide opportunities to identify and fill monitoring gaps so the scientists can better serve at-risk communities.” Holder, who is also the technical lead of the WSMART program and active in developing smoke sensors, said.
First-hand experiences help ARA trainees learn from seasoned ARAs and develop a better understanding of how to work with incident management teams and other cooperators to protect wildland firefighters and the public from the adverse impacts from wildfire smoke. EPA ARAs and trainees like Holder use these experiences to improve wildfire incident management, locate gaps in air quality research and monitoring, and forge valuable partnerships with federal, state, and local representatives whose shared goal is to protect human health and the environment.
This article was written by Sarah Whichello, Oak Ridge Associated Universities Research Participant with EPA.
Read more:
Wildfire Smoke Air Monitoring Response Technology (WSMART) Pilot
Wildland Fire Research to Protect Health and the Environment