Wildfires can severely degrade soils and watersheds. Post-fire rain events can leach ashes and altered dissolved organic matter (DOM) into streams, impacting water quality and carbon biogeochemistry. The photochemical properties and persistence of DOM from wildfire ash leachates are not well understood. To establish a range of properties, wildfire DOM leachates were generated from (i) surficial [grey and black] wildfire ashes, (ii) mineral soils below ash, and (iii) unimpacted soils from two Colorado wildfire scars. Subsequently, the leachates were studied under simulated sunlight. Photochemical properties of absorbance, fluorescence and