Localized harm

Personal wood smoke stories

Smoke pours out of the chimney of a yellow house next to some trees.

Real people experience real harm and a reduced quality of life due to involuntary exposure to wood smoke pollution.

If you are affected by someone else’s wood burning, you are not alone.

What’s your wood smoke story?

Neighbors of wood burners have shared the following stories with us. Use the form below to share your own wood smoke story.

Skip to main content
1 Stories total.

A “nightmare” in Victoria, Australia

…their chimney is at my eye level about 15 feet off my verandah, living room and bedroom…

Apartment smells like smoke

His wood burning makes our entire apartment smell like smoke even when all of the windows and doors are closed…

Forced to leave Dundas, Ontario

…a close neighbor started outdoor burns in his backyard using a vintage wood stove with an attached, homemade 4.5' smokestack…

Smoked out by a Defra-approved stove

…Three air purifiers in the house, no ventilation possible, caused mould for the first time ever… Soot on the walls…

Severe smoke pollution in Western Australia

…There are just so many wood heaters that as soon as the wind eases off we are swamped with smoke…

Dreading autumn in Sydney suburb

I never noticed how bad residential wood fire smoke could get until I moved to a certain Sydney suburb many years ago now.

Pellet stoves pollute too

I would like to share my own personal experience breathing the emissions from a nearby pellet stove about a decade ago…

Fire pits burn all day

We have an imported “Nordic Spa” across the road from us. Several open wood burning fire pits still burning 14 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Fire pits ruin evenings

…these smokers’ rights trump my rights—they can dump their smoke on my lot, so I can’t use my property the way I choose.

Share your story

Is your neighbor’s wood burning affecting you? We want to hear about it!  

Sharing your wood smoke story helps to increase awareness of the problem.

We ask for your name and email address so we can contact you about your story. We’ll only publish your name if you tell us to. Email addresses are never published.

If you’d like to include a photo or video, tell us in the text of your message. We will contact you with information on how you can send it to us.
Thank you! Your story has been sent.
We’ll be in touch soon.
Sorry! Something went wrong while submitting the form.