Global Courant
Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, blanketing both countries’ capitals in an unhealthy haze, sending school breaks in and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.
As Canadian officials expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 420 fires across the country, air quality with what the US deems “dangerous” pollution levels expanded into central New York, with massive tongues of “unhealthy” air that stretched as far as Virginia and Indiana.
In Baltimore, Maryland, where officials warned residents to stay indoors if possible and limit exercise outdoors, Debbie Funk donned a blue surgical mask as she and husband Jack Hughes took their daily walk around Fort McHenry, a national monument overlooking the Patapsco River. The sky hung thick above the water, obscuring the horizon as distant ships pushed slowly through the haze.
“I walked out this morning and it was like a cloud of smoke,” said Funk, who said the couple had considered skipping the walk but wanted some exercise. The two planned to stay indoors later Wednesday.
Canada’s wildfire season began early this year and accelerated very quickly, depleting firefighting resources across the country, Canada Interagency Forest Fire Center spokesperson Jennifer Kamau said.
Smoke from the fires in several parts of the country has been moving into the United States since last month, but intensified with a recent spate of fires in Quebec, where more than 100 blazes burned and were deemed uncontrollable on Tuesday.
Northern Quebec’s largest city – Chibougamau, with an estimated population of 7,500 – was evacuated Tuesday after another Quebec community was set on fire on Monday, drawing the ire of local residents.
Quebec Premier François Legault said Monday that authorities had no choice because the blaze around the hamlet of Clova was too intense to send water bombers. It remained that way on Tuesday, he said, but noted that no houses had actually burned down.
Kamau said more than 950 firefighters and other personnel have already arrived from the US, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and crews from Costa Rica will arrive shortly.
On the other side of the border, the effects of the fires blurred skylines and irritated throats.
“It’s sunny, but there’s no sun,” Michele Kluk said as she emerged from a Target store in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania with “a bunch” of allergy medication in response to the air quality.
