Chemical Data Collected from the Eaton Fire Plume Help Characterize Urban Fires

Caltech scientists have published the first detailed analysis of the atmospheric particles in the smoke plume from the Eaton Fire that devastated much of the town of Altadena in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley and the surrounding areas in January 2025. The results confirm the very different chemical nature of the smoke produced by an urban fire as compared to the plume from a typical wildfire. In the early stages of the fire, when many structures and vehicles were burning, the concentration of toxic metals in the atmosphere spiked dramatically. This chemical signature, which was measu

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