As fires burn in eight of the nine counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, the region is covered in smoke and ash, creating dangerous breathing conditions in a time of pandemic, when healthy lungs more than ever matter.
The smoke comes as the typically cool and dry Bay Area roasts under a prolonged, record-breaking heat wave, forcing non-air-conditioned residents to swell in their homes or venture to public cooling centers. More than 22,000 people have been evacuated in and around the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Erin DeMerritt, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, said people should seek out public refrigeration centers if their homes are overheated, even if it means being exposed to the smoke from the fire department. “Heat takes precedence,” she said.
She said the poor air quality as a result of the smoke would likely continue until the fires were mostly contained. A cold fire status report on fire at the LNU Lightning Complex on Wednesday suggests conditions could not improve until September 1st.
She also noted that although most dust masks, including bandannas, help protect against the spread of COVID-19, they do not protect against particular dust from the smoke.
The American Lung Assn. urges Northern Californians to be careful on Wednesday, warning that the combination of excessive heat, smoke in the fire and COVID-19 poses risks to those most vulnerable to respiratory problems.
“The combination of uncontrolled fires and extreme heat has created conditions that endanger even healthy individuals,” said Afif El-Hasan, a spokesman for the association. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic only makes these potential effects more serious.”
Intense smoke and heat trigger coughs and wheezes, increase lung function and lead to bronchitis or even death, he said.
“The best thing you can do is prevent outdoor air,” said Mayor London Breed of San Francisco. Ash could be seen falling over the area.
Everyone should avoid exercising outdoors when there is smoke in the air. “Wildfire smoke is particularly harmful,” said Mat Ehrhardt, air pollution control officer for the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, adding that private cases over one-thirty can penetrate the width of a human hurdle deep into the lungs.
The coastal areas of Northern California generally have some of the cleanest air in the state, thanks to offshore breezes. But on Tuesday night, fires burned in the Bay Area – from Point Reyes in the north, to Monterey and Big Sur in the south – and cities like Bonny Doon experienced severely polluted air. Smoke drifted down into the Bay Area, and lay thickest on top of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula, including Mountain View, Palo Alto and Burlingame.
DeMerritt said southwest winds blew Marin fire smoke in southern San Francisco to San Jose, while winds along the coast brought smoke from the Lightning Complex fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains, such as the river and the Carmel fire in Monterey County.
Wednesday morning, cars parked outside the peninsula were covered with ashes and dust, as well as windows and outdoor furniture. The air was visibly hazy, and the smell of campfire was sharp.
Air quality index readings ranged from mid-100 levels along San Francisco Bay to 413 in the hills of Redwood City, according to the PurpleAir website.
The air quality index is the criterion used by the Environmental Protection Agency for air quality reporting. Levels ranging from 151 to 200 are considered unhealthy; from 201 to 300, very unhealthy; and 301 and above, dangerous.
In and around Los Angeles, the South Coast Air Quality Management District passed an advisory on ozone pollution, stating that “extremely high temperatures are expected to continue for several days to come … increasing the chance of Unusual to Very Unusual” air quality in many areas. ”
But firefighting problems in the region have been greatly reduced in recent days, in part due to the nearby extinguishing of the massive Apple fire in the San Bernardino National Forest.
In contrast, the city of Hillsborough, just south of San Francisco, had the worst air quality in the nation on Wednesday morning, according to IQAir.
Northern and Central California began to experience an unusually active sequence of for the most part dry lightning strike Sunday morning is the most widespread and violent in recent memory in the Bay Area on one of the hottest nights in years, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Solano County was severely threatened Wednesday morning after fire caused residents to flee last night and burn down houses and other structures.
Officials have ordered the evacuation of the western edge of Vacaville – a city of 100,000 residents about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento – in the Alamo Drive area north of Interstate 5 and west of North Orchard Avenue, according to a Facebook post by Vacaville Police. The Vacaville Fire District also ordered evacuations of Pleasants Valley Road, which lies to the west of the city, and the English Hills area north of the city.
Smoke and ash were also a problem far east of the Bay Area, especially wind gusts from a fire near Nevada City, northeast of Sacramento, and in areas wind gusts of the Solano fires. On Wednesday morning, ashes were working in the air in Sacramento. Thick smoke threw a haze and caused many to wear their pandemic masks outside to stifle the pollution.
Staff writers Joseph Serna, Anita Chabria, Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money, Leila Miller and Colleen Shalby contributed to this report.
