• Keep children, pregnant people, older adults, and people with heart or lung disease, including asthma, from touching or breathing ash
• Only touch ash to remove it while wearing an N95 mask, gloves and protective clothing
• Prevent ash from entering your home
• Use clean soil for planting​
  

• Asbestos
• Chemicals from paints, plastics, insulation and other building materials
• Lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxic heavy metals
• Benzene, formaldehyde, dioxins and other volatile organic compounds (VOC's)​
  

• Avoid touching ash in the yard, garden, walkways and driveways, as well as outdoor surfaces such as garbage cans, mailboxes and patio furniture
• Protect your lungs, skin and eyes by wearing an N95 mask, gloves, goggles and protective clothing when removing ash
• Pregnant women, older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease, including asthma, should take extra precautions to avoid contact with ash
• Do not allow children to play with ash and wash off toys before use
  

• Change your shoes and clothing to avoid tracking ash into your car, home, or other places
• Wash clothing soiled with ash in a separate load
• Keep pets away from ash and prevent them from tracking it into the home
  

• Wait until conditions outside clear before removing fire ash from your garden
• Try not to get ash into the air. Do not use leaf blowers
• Wet ash down and sweep into a garbage bag before removing
• Securely store ash in enclosed plastic bags or containers. Dispose in regular trash
• If ash does get on your skin, wash it off as soon as possible
• Avoid washing ash into storm drains
• Never use fire ash as fertilizer or soil conditioner in your yard or garden
• When there has been a lot of ash, use raised garden beds (also called garden boxes) with clean soil or remove topsoil
• Place straw wattles, hay bales, and mulch around burned areas to prevent or reduce the chances of ash and debris from entering your home garden or yard
  

• Carefully inspect your produce for any signs of ash deposits
• Wash and scrub produce well by running fruits and vegetables with water before storing, cooking, canning or eating them
• Remove the outer leaves of leafy green vegetables like lettuce, kale, swiss chard and savoy cabbage
• Soak your produce in a 10% white vinegar solution to take soil particles off deeply veined leafy green vegetables
• Peel potatoes and other root vegetables before eating. If possible, peel other fruits and vegetables too
• Do not plant root vegetables in contaminated soil
  

Additional Re​sources​

• Produce Safety After a Fire (PDF)​
  
• 5 Steps to Healthy Produce During Wildfire Smoke
• What Should I Do About the Wildfire Ash Covering My Yard and Garden?​​