In recent wildfire events, buildings far from active burn zones have been blanketed with smoke and ash despite never being touched by flame. As wildfire frequency and scale increase, smoke, char, and ash are coming into contact with more commercial and residential structures than ever before, a shift driven by the expansion of communities into fire-prone landscapes known as the wildland–urban interface (WUI).
In the aftermath of these fires, property owners face difficult questions: Is our building damaged? Is it safe to occupy? Do we have to tear everything out and start over?