why is wildfire smoke more dangerous than campfire smoke?

Question

I know that no smoke is good for you to breathe in, but I’ve seen some posts about how if you breathe in the same amount of both campfire and wildfire smoke, the wildfire smoke would be worse for you. Why is that?

In: 2

Answer 1

Wildfires tends to have a lot more sot and ashes then campfires. The wildfire will use up all the oxygen in the forest so you get incomplete combustion producing lots of sot. And the heat is much stronger then in a campfire so you get a lot of updraft taking the sot and ashes into the air. So it is not just smoke but lots of particles which are harmful to your lungs.