NEW YORK (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, sending school recesses indoors and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.
While Canadian officials expanded evacuation orders and asked other countries for help fighting more than 420 fires nationwide, air quality with what the U.S. rates as “hazardous” levels of pollution extended into central New York, with massive tongues of “unhealthy” air extending as far as Virginia and Indiana.
In Baltimore, where officials warned residents to stay indoors when possible and limit outdoor exertion, Debbie Funk sported a blue surgical mask as she and husband Jack Hughes took their daily walk. The air hung thick over the water, obscuring the horizon as distant ships pushed slowly through the haze.
“I walked outside this morning and it was like a waft of smoke,” said Funk.
Canada’s wildfire season started early this year and accelerated very quickly, exhausting firefighting resources across the country, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre spokesperson Jennifer Kamau said.
Smoke from the blazes in various parts of the country has been lapping into the U.S. since last month but intensified with a recent spate of fires in Quebec, where more than 100 fires were burning and considered out of control Tuesday.
The largest town in Northern Quebec — Chibougamau, population about about 7,500 — was evacuated Tuesday, after another Quebec community was left to burn Monday, drawing the ire of local residents.
