After the Fires: Your Employees Are Not Okay
Editor's Note
After the Fires: Your Employees Are Not Okay
I was in Las Vegas at the HR Tech Conference in 2017 when my world caught fire. We learned because one of the kids who lived in the area called to ask if there was anything we wanted them to get from the house.
We told them not to go and to stay off the roads so that emergency responders could get through. We had our computers and a week's work of clothes with us, far more than our friends who evacuated in their pajamas with no time to grab anything else. We felt lucky to be able to return home. On the way to the airport, we stopped at Home Depot and bought several cases of N95 masks to bring back because the local stores were out. The airline waived fees for our extra luggage when we explained what was in the boxes and why we had them. We handed out masks to anyone who told us they were going that way.
But the world no longer looked like home.
Ash fell from the sky and coated everything for days. The sun turned strange colors of orange and red depending on what had been burning. I know way more about colors of smoke than I ever wanted to. The darker the color, the more toxins.
Even after the fires were under control, schools and workplaces remained closed until the air quality met legal standards for safety. It took a long time, although everything felt surreal and I don't remember exactly.
Friends and students who lost their homes were in shock. One friend was obsessed with finding all the furniture she lost so she could try to recreate her sense of home. It didn't work.
Even after the air cleared, the ashy rubble remained for months, in some places, years. The burn scars on the hills and the black, barren tree trunks are still there.
We've been evacuated twice since 2017 and had several fires come close. Watching the fires destroy Los Angeles has been heartbreaking. I'm having emotional flashbacks to our experiences too.
When our worlds are suddenly destroyed, it takes a long time for humans to recover. Home is where we feel safe and can be ourselves. Upending people's sense of safety and identity is the essence of trauma.
If you are an employer who has employees in Los Angeles, please be compassionate and understanding. It takes time. Their worlds have been completely and permanently changed. While the city and people will recover, they will never be the same.
But first, they need to breathe. Here's a great piece from Seyfarth on workplace air quality requirements after fires.
- Heather Bussing
As Wildfires Rage in Los Angeles, Employers Must Comply with Cal/OSHA’s Wildfire Smoke Rules
by Patrick Joyce, Ilana Morady, and Adam Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: Ongoing wildfires in Southern California trigger Cal/OSHA regulations that require employers to train and protect employees from wildfire smoke. The regulation applies to most outdoor workplaces, requiring employers to provide N95 respirators at certain AQI trigger levels, effective communication, and training on wildfire smoke hazards.
Devastating and fast-moving wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in several parts of Southern California, resulting in tragic deaths, upended lives, and disrupted workplaces. As firefighters continue to battle the fires and bring them under control, the region has been blanketed by wildfire smoke, a recognized occupational hazard. Though smoke is often apparent via sight and smell, air quality can be impacted far beyond the range of the fires.
Cal/OSHA enforces a permanent regulation relating to Protection from Wildfire Smoke that applies to workplaces where the current Air Quality Index (AQI) for airborne particulate matter (PM 2.5) is 151 or greater, and where employers should reasonably anticipate that employees could be exposed to wildfire smoke. Employers must track wildfire smoke in areas where employee exposure is anticipated, using one of several options provided authorized by Cal/OSHA, including the airnow.gov website maintained by U.S. EPA. As of January 9, 2025, AirNow approximates AQI Category of 150 or more (for all particulate matter, not just PM 2.5) in the red, purple, and maroon areas below:
Employers can anticipate that most of the workforce of Los Angeles County and surrounding areas could be occupationally exposed to wildfire smoke in the coming days above the AQI threshold. For instance, construction sites, warehouses with open bay doors, retail workers who go outdoors, and even indoor workplaces without mechanical ventilation that rely upon open windows will all be impacted by wildfire smoke. Indoor workplaces and enclosed vehicles with mechanical ventilation and closed windows are exempt from the standard, as are employees who are only exposed to an AQI for PM 2.5 of 151 or above for less than one hour per shift. Firefighters are not covered by the standard.
Employers with covered employees must take the following steps to protect workers who may be exposed to wildfire smoke:
- Monitor air quality using one of the methods set out in the rule, including AirNow.gov.
- Identify harmful exposure to airborne particulate matter from wildfire smoke at the start of each shift and periodically thereafter by checking the AQI for PM 2.5 in regions where workers are located.
- Reduce harmful exposure to wildfire smoke if feasible, for example, by relocating work to an enclosed building with filtered air, or to an outdoor location where the AQI for PM 2.5 is 150 or lower.
- If employers cannot reduce workers’ harmful exposure to wildfire smoke so that the AQI for PM 2.5 is 150 or lower, they must provide:
- Filtering facepiece respirators such as N95 masks to all employees for voluntary use, and
- Training on the hazard as required by the Injury and Illness Prevention Plan.
If employees must be exposed to an AQI for PM 2.5 of 500 or above, appropriate respiratory protection is mandatory and must be provided under a compliant respiratory protection program. Employers also need to establish and implement a system for communicating wildfire smoke hazards with employees and ensure that employees may report such hazards without fear of reprisal.
