The 2025 Los Angeles (LA) fires burned approximately 16,000 buildings, raising concerns about metal emissions from the combustion of construction materials, household contents, and other anthropogenic sources. These metals can infiltrate and persist in indoor environments, posing prolonged exposure risks even after the fires have extinguished. Soft items, such as pillows, plush toys, and clothings, are of particular concern due to their porous structures, which facilitate the deposition of metal-containing particles. This study evaluates the efficacy of three remediation approaches (i.e., dry cleaning, machine washing and drying, and air drying) for removing metals from soft items collected from homes impacted by the 2025 LA fires, as well as from non-fire-impacted control homes. Surface dust was collected from items pre- and post- remediation using vacuum-based filter sampling, and metal concentrations were quantified using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Preliminary results show that items in fire-impacted homes contained, on average, 17.3 folds higher lithium (Li), 8.3 folds higher iron (Fe), 7.4 higher zinc (Zn) and 4.2 folds higher lead (Pb) per unit area than those in control homes. Dry cleaning removed an average of 91.7% of Li, 81.9% of Fe, 78% of Pb, and 63.7% of Zn. Ongoing work includes testing additional remediation strategies and a wider range of soft household items. This study will inform evidence-based post-wildfire cleaning recommendations for smoke-exposed homes.

Green roofs (GRs) originally gained popularity in Europe as a sustainable urban infrastructure solution, and in the late 2000s–early 2010s, cities across the United States, including Chicago, Portland, and Washington, D.C., implemented GR policies. GRs have largely been framed as a multi-benefit solution to reduce energy usage, improve air quality and biodiversity, limit stormwater runoff, and mitigate urban heat. While the effectiveness of GRs has been researched both theoretically and empirically for temperate and humid climates, there is limited research on the performance of GRs in Mediterranean climates, like that of Los Angeles (LA). This project examines the viability of implementing GRs in LA and assesses the potential use cases for the technology in comparison to cool roofing. To investigate these questions, our team performed environmental and economic modeling of two large-scale GR installations in LA; created GIS maps to visualize urban heat islands and assess spatial need for cooling technology; conducted informational interviews to understand current implementation challenges; reviewed LA’s sustainability policies to identify opportunities to integrate GR incentives; and finally, developed a field environmental data collection process to assess the performance of Loyola Marymount University’s restored GR. Ultimately, our findings will help characterize the viability of GR implementation within the city across cost, environmental, and policy factors.

A combination of climate change, land management, and development has intensified wildfire activity in the western U.S, raising the probability that communities will be exposed to hazardous smoke. Outdoor events like the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles could be impacted by smoke from local or regional wildfires, compromising athlete respiratory health and disrupting event logistics as millions of people travel to the area. This project assesses how the California wildfire season could alter regional air quality by predicting exposure at populous outdoor venues during the Olympic timeframe, enabling proactive planning through early awareness of potential smoke‑related outcomes. The Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport Model (STILT) will identify potential smoke transport pathways under a range of meteorological conditions from NOAA reanalysis data (2020-2025) at four Olympic outdoor venues: the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Carson Courts, and UCLA. These simulations calculate how wildfire smoke could be transported to Olympic locations at hourly and monthly levels during July and August by using NOAA reanalysis wind fields to backtrack air parcel trajectories from each site. Examining periods with reduced or heightened exposure lets organizers schedule competitions or adjust event start times to avoid the most hazardous hours of smoke. This framework provides a venue-specific assessment of wildfire smoke risk to safeguard athlete health and ensure continuity of the 2028 Olympic Games.