Local agencies urge early action ahead of looming wildfire smoke season

Anticipation looms over the Pacific Northwest as to when we could see smoke in the air.

SEATTLE - Anticipation looms over the Pacific Northwest as to when we could see smoke in the air.

It's been a talker across the country as the East Coast is stifled with hazy skies from Canadian wildfires. This week, Smoke Ready Week, local clean air agencies want you to take the proper precautions to protect yourself while skies are still blue.

A big part of protecting ourselves is first planning for when smoke arrives, not if. We've learned in the Pacific Northwest, even if we don't have local fires, smoke from Canada, Oregon and California wildfires can all funnel towards us.

"The fire seasons over the last 10 to 15 years have gotten significantly longer with much larger incidents and much more prolonged incidents," said Vaughn Cork, fuels specialist with the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

According to DNR, it's the size and intensity of the larger wildfires that's the problem.

"A lot of it has to do with much, much bigger fires," Cork said. "A little fire only has so much reach with where the smoke can get to. When you have these massive conflagrations that are a hundred acres, the smoke they can put out for a day can travel for thousands of miles."

That means, unfortunately, even if we do our part in Washington and go flame-free, we can still breathe in smoke from a fire burning in another region.

"Just depending on the weather and the way the winds are blowing," Cork said. "Any of that smoke could come to us. We saw it in 2020 with smoke blowing up from California."

We also some of it a few weeks ago, when Canadian wildfire smoke headed south.

"Smoke can travel distances," said Kaitlyn Kelly, air quality policy specialist with the Washington Department of Health. "It doesn't know state boundaries, and so it's important to be ready for smoke and not just ready for wildfires."

Kelly said now is the time to be proactive.

"Smoke will impact everybody," Kelly said. "You might have some minor symptoms if you're healthy. But it's important to track your symptoms after a smoke event, because we're really uncertain about how smoke impacts us long-term. Even if you're healthy, taking those steps to reduce your exposure is really important."

If your home has an HVAC system, Kelly suggested adding a MERV-13 filter to help keep pollution out. You can also buy portable air cleaners, or you can make your own box fan filter to keep particles out of your home.

"What we're really concerned about is particulate matter, 2.5," Kelly said.

2.5 stands for the size of the matter—2.5 microns or smaller.

That means it's really small, and it gets past your lungs into your bloodstream.

Once that happens, you're exposing your body to pollutants, which can lead to minor illnesses, or something bigger down the line.

Kelly also said there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to long-term smoke effects, so she recommends tracking your symptoms after a smoke event.

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There is another resource you can use—it's an app called AirQualityWA (iOS and Android). You can check levels and see which locations are better or worse during a smoke event. You can download it for free in the mobile app store.

Seattle Wildfires