Midnight in the South Side

It was supposed to be a standard rooftop sundowner in Jhamsikhel - good music, a late-night breeze, and the city lights.

But by midnight, the view changed. ​We watched as a nearby building under construction began to exhale thick, grey smoke into the night sky.

The orange glow against the scaffolding wasn't a sunset; it was an active fire.

While the fire department arrived with impressive speed, the damage to the air was already done. Construction fires are particularly toxic.

They involve the combustion of: - ​Treated timber and plywood adhesives. - ​Plastic PVC piping. - ​Synthetic netting and scaffolding covers. ​ When these materials burn, they don't just produce "smoke" they release heavy concentrations of PM2.5 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that linger in the dense midnight air, settling into the neighborhood long after the flames are out. ​We were lucky the fire station was close and a catastrophe was averted.

But as we look at this photo, let’s remember that "clean air" is fragile.

It only takes one spark at a construction site to turn a neighborhood’s air into a health hazard.