FIRE AND SMOKE!

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:58 pm

If any of you have had similar experiences, please feel free to post them.

Sometime, early this morning, I wondered how many other hoseheads have had to try to sleep with forest fire or wild fire smoke getting sucked through their machines. We've got a fire burning west of us about 30 miles (in the mountains) and for a month we've had smoke-filled skies. Last night was by far the worst as the weather conditions kept the smoke closer to the ground and came down the valley into our open windows. I really didn't seem to notice it during the night, but was VERY aware of it as I woke up to the alarm this morning.

There are many fires burining around the U.S., so I presume there are others in this predicament.

Large fires:
Arizona (3)
California (10)
Idaho (2)
Minnesota (2)
Montana (11)
Nebraska (1)
Nevada (4)
New Mexico (1)
South Dakota (2)
Texas (2)
Utah (5)
Washington (2)
Wyoming (5)

The website:

http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html

This is the fire in our neighborhood:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/260/

Pictures of the mountains where the fire is:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/pictures/260/

Den (aka "Smokey", for the time being)

OwlCreekObserver · Post by **OwlCreekObserver** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:03 pm

Sorry to hear that. It turns out that what's good for the forest (allowing it to burn) isn't necessarily good for the human population close to the forest. I suppose there's probably way too much smoke for an air purifier to help much, right?

Don't forget to check the air filters on your machine also.

OCO

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:21 pm

OwlCreekObserver wrote:Sorry to hear that. It turns out that what's good for the forest (allowing it to burn) isn't necessarily good for the human population close to the forest. I suppose there's probably way too much smoke for an air purifier to help much, right?

Don't forget to check the air filters on your machine also.

OCO

Yep. The beetles have killed lots of trees and the old stands of timber need to be "renewed" from time to time. It's jut a little scary when it's this hot (about 100) for prolonged periods of time.

That thought of washing out my filter occurred to me this morning, too.

Den

Snoozing Gonzo · Post by **Snoozing Gonzo** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:36 pm

Wulfman, Just the other day I was wondering how that was going to work. Although we haven't had a sustained fire yet in Western Montana, the prognosticators say that the conditions are close to that of the summer of 2000. That summer, as you know, saw hundreds of thousands of acres of private and public land burn in west central and northwest Montana. Valleys up to 100 miles away from the fires became so choked with smoke and ash that Stage II air alerts were called limiting driving, children and elderly time outdoors, football and soccer practices were held indoors, etc. Visibilty got so bad that it limited air travel for a few days during the worst of the smoke inversions. I hope the forcasters are wrong about this summer!

I was thinking that I should order some additional fine filters. In the end, we may feel better than everyone else in that we might get a respite from breathing that stuff for a few hours. On the other hand the CPAP equipment might smell like a campfire until January.

Please report on your experiences and advice regarding the smoke. I'm sure that there are several of us that will be reading with interest.
Thanks,

Chris

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Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:08 pm

Hi Chris,

Seems like the western part of Montana has lucked out....so far. Most of the nasty ones have been in the southern and eastern parts of the state. The Billings paper has had lots of coverage on them.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/

Our worst one (of course) was in '88 when Yellowstone burned. It looked like late evening in the middle of the afternoon. You couldn't see the sun.

Like I said, out of a month with this particular fire, last night was by far the worst as far as pushing the smoke down the valley. We had had some rain awhile back that I thought was going to put it out......but that didn't happen. We then had some real strong winds in the last couple of weeks that really whipped it up again.

Take care.

Den

idahogal · Post by **idahogal** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:21 pm

Along those same lines I will share a similar situation I had over the weekend. I went camping in my RV and of course took my cpap. We had the traditional campfire and thought nothing of it. When I went to bed that night I had a face full of campfire smoke. I did not have any extra filters with me so I had to deal with this for a total of 2 nights. When I got home I washed and changed my filters and the smoke smell was still in the hose. I washed everything again and all is better now. I will, from this point on take extra filters with me when camping and store my cpap during the day where the smoke won't reach like a cupboard or under my blankets.

Snoozing Gonzo · Post by **Snoozing Gonzo** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:55 pm

I suspect our luck may not hold for long. We had an unusually wet May and June which kept fuel moisture up but helped understory go crazy. Temps in the mid to upper 90s plus wind in the afternoons and evenings have pushed the fire warnings (based on average measured fuel moisture in the area) from Moderate to Very High over the past 6 days. An Extreme ranking along with initial restrictions on recreation (no campfires w/o grates, ground pads for backcountry fires, etc.) and work (saw spark arrestors checked, no catalytic convertors off road, maybe evening and morning work only, etc) in the forest expected by this weekend.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:58 pm

we've had a fire burning here for weeks and another smaller one about a week ago.

years ago I was in Butte doing some work for Montana Power & Light when Yellowstone was burning, that smoke just settled there.

Bookbear · Post by **Bookbear** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:37 pm

Wulfman, I had exactly that situation happen to me this past Saturday night. A fire started about 8:30 p.m. about 2 miles from us. It was so bad the smell woke me at 2:30 am. I got up and closed most of the windows and shut off the fans. The next morning, I tossed the spap fiter and replaced it with a new one, washed the mask and hose for an extra long time and that helped a lot, but there is still a faint lingering odor of smoke.

Wulfman · Post by **Wulfman** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:56 pm

FYI.

It was pretty smokey last night, up to the point of going to bed. There had been a heavy cloud cover that was holding the smoke below it. Lots of ash falling out of the sky.....which was very visible on our glass-topped patio table (and most everything else).
Finally, during the evening, the cloud cover moved out and the smoke was able to rise. Windows came open and sleeping was pretty good.

Unfortunately, earlier in the day, the wind whipped the fire up and it spread.
Here's an article in the local online paper about it.

http://www.codyenterprise.com/articles/ ... /news2.txt

By the way, the ranch that's mentioned in the first paragraph is one of at least five in this area that are owned by a family named Hunt. You MAY have heard of them.....one of them owns the Kansas City Chiefs.

Best wishes,

Den

(I'm not sure how long that link will work (a few days maybe).....I don't think the local paper does much in the way of archiving their stories)

birdshell · Post by **birdshell** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:52 pm

Just a thought: would one of those new "no odor" sprays help eliminate the smoky smell? It could be sprayed by the intake for the xPAP, and sprayed into the hose and on the mask. The hose and mask could even be enclosed in a plastic baggie after spraying to allow the stuff to kind of bathe them in the vapors.

I do not think it would hurt the hose and mask. If it were sprayed NEAR the intake, it should be in small enough particles by the time it would be sucked into the machine.

Short of that, maybe rent one of the ozone generators they use after a house fire? It could really take the smoky smell out of the camper....

OwlCreekObserver · Post by **OwlCreekObserver** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 6:19 pm

birdshell wrote:Just a thought: would one of those new "no odor" sprays help eliminate the smoky smell? It could be sprayed by the intake for the xPAP, and sprayed into the hose and on the mask. The hose and mask could even be enclosed in a plastic baggie after spraying to allow the stuff to kind of bathe them in the vapors.

I do not think it would hurt the hose and mask. If it were sprayed NEAR the intake, it should be in small enough particles by the time it would be sucked into the machine.

Short of that, maybe rent one of the ozone generators they use after a house fire? It could really take the smoky smell out of the camper....

I use a vinegar and water solution to sterilize my mask and hoses once or twice a week. Even after rinsing everything off, there's still a slight vinegar smell to everything. I recently read a suggestion on this forum to soak the stuff again in a baking soda solution to remove the vinegar smell. Yesterday I did that, using about 1/2 cup of baking soda to about a dozen cups of water. I let it soak for about 20 minutes, rinsed it off, and the vinegar smell was gone. Maybe this would also help remove some of the smoky smell from your mask, hose and humidifier.

OCO

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:43 pm

OwlCreekObserver wrote:I recently read a suggestion on this forum to soak the stuff again in a baking soda solution to remove the vinegar smell. Yesterday I did that, using about 1/2 cup of baking soda to about a dozen cups of water. I let it soak for about 20 minutes, rinsed it off, and the vinegar smell was gone.

Glad to hear that worked for you OCO. The guy who told me about the baking soda/water soaking trick to get the vinegar smell out of the hose/mask doesn't post much. He's been using cpap about 9 years and just got a new Respironics M series Auto. Now that he's getting such a nice low AHI and sleeping so well with that machine, he stays busy.

Yeah, maybe that would help cut the smoke smell -- at least any that lingered in the hose and mask after each machine run -- until it finally left the machine completely.

birdshell · Post by **birdshell** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:47 pm

Y'know, that baking soda and water soak WOULD counterbalance the vinegar and water soak. Baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid.

Great idea and MUCH cheaper than the no-odor spray--but what about the xPAP machine's innards?

Remember those volcanoes we used to stuff with baking soda and then pour vinegar into them to make them "erupt" with the foam? Ah, those papier mache projects!

dsm · Post by **dsm** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 12:07 am

Smoke in CPAPs,

This is an interesting line.

Firstly, my sympathies to any of you folks in the US where fires are happening. We have been hearing about your challenges in the news here in Australia. Am sure I don't have to add what bushfires mean to Aussies

On the smoke topic...
One of the many CPAPs I obtained for my cpap museum, had an incredibly strong smoke smell in it. Anyone living around places that go up in flames can often identify the origins of a fire by the variation in the acridness of the smell.

I (rightly or wrongly) have concluded that this particular cpap (the old PB318 in the collection) had been in a house fire.

As an exercise I took the machine apart & washed its insides with strong detergent - soaked all the internal foam bits - washed it all again - left some parts in direct sunlight -

When reassembled & powered up it smelled just as bad as before I had started.

So, my advice to anyone who has smoke anywhere near your xPAP
1) Use fine filters
2) Clean the filters daily
3) Try to keep the machine covered when not in use, & use an airtight cover (but do empty the humidifier 1st).

Smoke is evil

Cheers

DSM

FIRE AND SMOKE!

FIRE AND SMOKE!

Smoky Smell Sprayed Away

Re: Smoky Smell Sprayed Away

Re: Smoky Smell Sprayed Away

Baking Soda

Mask

Additional Comments: cpap pressure: 12

Machine	Mask

Additional Comments: Avg. AHI .4