Here's How to Prevent Heart and Lung Damage As wildfire smoke threatens air quality and safety for millions, here's your playbook to keep your family safe from the damaging effects of smoke particulates. Wildfire season is fully upon us-- and with it, the smoke . The most spectacular threat of a wildfire is of course the possibility it might directly threaten lives and homes, like the wildfires last year that devastated Los Angeles . But it is the smoke and the stinging haze--and especially the invisible particulate matter borne aloft for hundreds of miles--that is most likely to pose grave health risks to millions across the country, as wildfires rage in Canada and across the American West during summer months. So do visits to lung doctors.