system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does it hurt so much when you get smoke in your eyes?

That's pretty well it. Got smoke in eyes. It hurt.
gpt
Smoke is basically small particles of carbon and other materials from what was being burned.  Those particles are like any other irritant when they come in contact with your eyes.  Whatever was burning can cause reactions with your skin.  Smoke from plastics or rubbers can do chemical damage to your skin.

It's also a large part of the danger of smoke inhalation - not that you're breathing a gas, but that you're breathing in STUFF that gets stuck in the wet membranes of your lungs.  Modern house fires are VERY dangerous for that, due to the large number of synthetic products that catch and burn, creating toxic fumes and clouds of dangerous smoke.

Not to mention that those small particles may still be VERY hot.

Yeah, smokes bad.