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Poor air quality caused by wildfires throughout the Bay area have prompted officials from the Alameda County Health Department to issue a health alert, and residents have been advised to remain indoors with doors and windows closed.
According to county health officials, smoke from wildfires contains many air pollutants that are of concern for health such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ozone.
To avoid adverse health effects, county health officials have advised residents to avoid contact with the smoke whenever possible by minimizing any time spent outdoors, especially among sensitive groups such as older adults, pregnant women and people who have asthma, lung or heart disease.
“Exposure to smoky air can make anyone feel unwell, with coughing, scratchy throat, irritated sinuses, shortness of breath, chest pain, headaches, stinging eyes or runny nose,” said Contra Costa Health Services officials, who issued their own warning Wednesday. “Healthy people who are exposed to smoky air for a few days to a few weeks are unlikely to experience long-term health impacts. But for some people, prolonged exposure to unhealthy air can have serious health effects.”
Alameda County health officials added that while cloth and surgical masks are vital in combating the coronavirus pandemic, they will provide very little protection for smoke and are not a replacement for staying inside.
The announcement comes after the Bay Area Air Quality Management District extended its Spare the Air alert through Sunday due to smoke that has spread throughout the region from wildfires sparked by lightning last weekend
According to the air district, the Livermore Valley, Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley are expected to see the heaviest impacts from the smoke pollution, but impacts will be apparent throughout the Bay Area.
The East Bay Regional Park District on Wednesday moved to close all of its inland parks until further notice due to the fire conditions around the Bay Area.
“The Park District is currently experiencing an unprecedented number of wildfires in parks, including Round Valley Regional Preserve, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, Del Valle Regional Park, Sunol Wilderness Regional Preserve, Ohlone Wilderness Regional Preserve, Mission Peak Regional Preserve and Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park,” EBRPD officials said.
Some shoreline parks and all paved regional trails are not affected and remain open.
For the most up-to-date air quality maps, residents can visit airnow.gov. More health information about wildfire smoke is available online at www.acphd.org/wildfire-smoke.
Area wildfires
A major contributor to smoke in the Tri-Valley, firefighters in east-central Contra Costa have shown optimism that conditions in the Deer Zone wildfires on Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County may be improving.
Ignited by the rash of dry-lighting strikes that hit the region early Sunday morning, as of Tuesday the Deer Zone fires have burned nearly 1,500 acres on the northeast face of Mount Diablo, according to Bay City News Service.
“They’re actually looking pretty good out there, better than other areas,” Erica Bain, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told Bay City News Service. Bain added that there was “minimal fire activity” overnight associated with the four blazes that make up the Deer Zone fires.
Meanwhile, the group of vegetation fires that ignited near the Sunol Regional Wilderness and the Calaveras Reservoir during lightning strikes on Sunday were still spreading as of Wednesday morning.
But an exact size and containment couldn’t be tracked because Cal Fire was reporting combined data for all 20 separate lightning fires in this part of the Bay Area under the “SCU Lightning Complex” moniker — which stood at 102,000 acres with 5% containment as of press time.
The SCU Lightning Complex had caused no fatalities but resulted in two first-responder injuries as of Wednesday night. No structures had been damaged or destroyed.
There are also fast-moving wildfires raging elsewhere in the Bay Area and Northern California, including Solano, Sonoma, Napa and Santa Cruz counties.
