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Keep life going · Clean air

Make One Room Easier to Breathe In.

Outdoor smoke, ash, dust, a damaged building, or indoor combustion can change the air without changing how the room looks. Start with a room, a source of current air information, and a safer place to go.

Choose the room before the smoke arrives.

Pick a room large enough for the household, with few doors and windows and no fireplace. If possible, use a space that can stay cool with outside air closed.

Check whether your HVAC system can use a higher-efficiency filter and recirculate indoor air. Renters should ask before changing shared equipment.

Reduce what enters and what you create.

Close and recirculate

Close windows and doors when outdoor smoke is unhealthy. Set compatible cooling or ventilation systems to recirculate and limit exhaust fans that pull smoky air indoors.

Filter the room

Use a portable cleaner sized for the room that produces little or no ozone. EPA says a well-built DIY box-fan cleaner can be a temporary option when commercial equipment is unavailable or unaffordable.

Create less indoors

Avoid smoking, candles, incense, frying, aerosol sprays, and fuel-burning appliances that add particles or gases to indoor air.

Watch heat too

A sealed room can overheat. Monitor temperature and air quality together; move to a cooled, filtered public space when you cannot keep both within safe limits.

Match filtration to the person and building.

Asthma and heart or lung conditions

Keep action plans, medicines, contact information, and clinician guidance available. Follow health advice about symptoms and exposure rather than inventing a universal threshold.

Apartments

Smoke can move through corridors and shared ventilation. Ask management about filters, outdoor-air controls, common cleaner-air rooms, and generator or smoking rules.

Power loss

Know how long backup power can run a cleaner or medical device. A charged battery is time, not a permanent utility.

Longer smoke events

Filters load, rooms warm, and supplies run out. Plan replacement filters, a second location, transport, animals, and current public cleaner-air sites.

Filtration does not make every air hazard safe. Leave and call the responsible service for fire, carbon monoxide alarms, gas odor, chemical release, structural damage, or symptoms that need urgent care.

Cleaner air can be shared capacity.

A library, school, community center, or neighbor’s filtered room may protect more people than ten half-working household setups. Confirm access, hours, transport, animals, and power before relying on it.

EPA’s current wildfire indoor-air guidance explains cleaner-air rooms, portable cleaners, HVAC filtration, and DIY cleaner limits. EPA cleaner-air room guidance.

Current public help

Find Official Help for current local authorities, alerts, utilities, health guidance, roads, weather, or shelters.

Reviewed July 25, 2026 against EPA cleaner-air room guidance. Recheck official instructions before publication and during any interruption.