Cars, driveways, pools, turned black after raining soot or oil this afternoon and evening around Roseland. This comes after a large fire erupted, emitting lots of black smoke. The raining soot, also called "Black Rain", has a meteorological explanation. 

When a large fire burns, it puts a lot of soot and smoke particles up into the atmosphere. On a dry day, these small particles would normally disperse into the atmosphere. If there are rain showers in the area, the raindrops can actually collect those particles as they fall.

Think of it like this: raindrops act almost like little scrubbers, sweeping soot and smoke out of the air. Instead of the soot just floating around as haze, it gets pulled down with the rain and ends up on the ground, cars, houses, and even people if they’re outside. That’s why many are seeing a dark, dirty residue on the ground right after the rain — the precipitation is basically washing the smoke out of the sky.