What type of respirator should be worn by workers who clean up after a fire or wildfire that damaged a facility or property?

Employers must make a reasonable estimate of workers' exposure and validate protection by sampling, objective data, or math computation. When engineering (e.g., ventilation) and administrative (e.g., procedures) controls aren’t feasible or adequate to protect workers from air contaminants, cleanup workers must wear respiratory protection. Where there is still a presence of smoke, workers must wear respirators that either filter out air contaminants or supply clean breathing air. These include:

• Air-purifying respirators (APRs), which have an air-purifying filter, cartridge, or canister that removes specific air contaminants from the air the worker breathes;
• Self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), which uses an independent air supply to provide clean air to the user from a tank carried by the user; and
• Combined unit respirators (CURs), which employ at least two different types of respirators, with one being an SCBA and another being an APR or powered APR, where the user can select the operating mode.

Where smoke may no longer be a factor, but airborne particulates may still be present, a NIOSH-approved filtering facepiece respirator (FFR), such as an N95 or P95, should be worn to reduce exposure.