Eli5: why do firefighters wear oxygen masks when fighting a building fire, but often not in a wildfire? You’re still breathing in smoke…

Question

Eli5: why do firefighters wear oxygen masks when fighting a building fire, but often not in a wildfire? You’re still breathing in smoke…

In: 483

Answer 1

Another good point on top of all the good responses is that it isn’t the same smoke really. The products of combustion off of a wildfire are mostly natural fuels: wood, grass, leaves, etc.

In a structure fire you have foams, beds, synthetic carpet, plastic, cars, vinyl siding, insulation, and on and on that creates a much deadlier smoke with a higher presence of both acutely deadly gasses and chronic carcinogenic gasses.