Wildfire from Olympic National Park casts thin veil of smoke over Spokane

Wildfire smoke wafting in from the Bear Gulch fire in Olympic National Park is to blame for the thin veil of haze that hovered over the Spokane area Wednesday.

Lisa Woodard, the communications manager for the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, said the air quality index reached the moderate level of 85 in Spokane as of 4:35 p.m.

The air quality index is a scale ranked from zero to 500. Zero to 50 is good, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 150 is classified as unhealthy for sensitive groups, 151 to 200 is unhealthy, 201 to 300 is very unhealthy, while hazardous is 301 to 500.

While some residual smoke may be pouring down from fires in British Columbia, Woodard said that the majority of the wildfire smoke is from the Olympic Peninsula . As of Wednesday morning, the Bear Gulch fire in Olympic Park burned approximately 7,400 acres and was only 3% contained.

Woodard said that historically, most significant smoke days are from mid-August to mid-September.

“Just because we’ve had a pretty good summer thus far in terms of smoke, it’s not uncommon for us to start seeing these situations as we get into mid-August, when things are really hot and dry,” Woodard said. “So this is that critical time where we have seen smoke impacts in past years.”

In terms of health impacts, Woodard said as long as the air quality index remains under 100, only people who are unusually sensitive to wildfire smoke should be affected.

“Good or moderate are considered within the health-based standards,” Woodard said. “That said, there are some people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution, and they probably know who they are, and they are going to want to take those precautions to reduce their exposure outdoors.”

It’s possible that the air quality will become unhealthy for sensitive groups overnight, but Woodard said changing wind patterns make it hard to know for certain. The rest of Wednesday night is expected to remain in the upper-moderate level.

Woodard encourages folks to check out a new website called smokereadyspokane.org to learn about resources and ways to reduce exposure to potentially hazardous smoke. Woodard calls the website a one-stop shop covering everything from health effects, what’s in smoke and even how to improve indoor air quality.

Anyone who wants an accurate air quality index updated hourly by the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency can visit spokanecleanair.org.

“I think today is just a good reminder that this is smoke season,” Woodard said. “Even though we’ve had a pretty mild summer thus far in terms of smoke, it’s just something to take note of and to make sure that you have the resources on hand that you may need to ensure that your exposure to smoke is minimized.”