Smoke From Canadian Fires Blankets Bay State
Fire Departments Reporting Numerous Calls
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/23745086/detail.htmlBOSTON -- Those hoping to enjoy sweet sea breezes on Cape Cod for their Memorial Day holiday were instead getting a whiff of forest fires from Canada, according to the National Weather Service.
Instead of smoke from barbecue grills, residents in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont were smelling Canadian wildfires hundreds of miles to the north, and inundating local fire departments with hundreds of calls on the smoke that was emanating from forest fires in Quebec.
"They think it's here. Yeah, they're trying to report a fire because they smell it and they know there's no open burning this time of year," said Sandwich Fire Department dispatcher Kathy Keene.
"I'm just noticing the smell more than anything else," one Cape Cod visitor said.
"This morning (Monday) there was a lot of smoke around. I thought maybe one of the islands had a grass fire on it, but then as the day went on and on, I started getting worried about it. Being up in Canada, I was surprised by that myself. I was like, 'Wow,'" said a Winthrop man.
The smoke was so thick around Boston that the Logan International Airport air traffic control tower was obscured by the haze and it was difficult to make out the Boston skyline from surrounding coastlines. Even so, MassPort officials said there were no reports of any problems at the airport.
Canadian officials said there were 50 fires blazing, eight of them out of control, and the wind patterns were driving the smoke over much of New England and Massachusetts.
"Are you kidding me?" one woman asked, when told where the smoke was coming from.
The majority of fires were burning in an area northwest of Montreal, where some residents complained of heavy smoke turning the skies yellow and the sun red, but Canadian authorities said the situation was under control and there was no cause for alarm. Some communities in that region, however, were evacuated, the Montreal Gazette reported.
Canadian authorities said rain is forecast for Monday night, which was expected to help the situation.
More than 1,200 firefighters from Quebec, New Brunswick, New Hampshire and Maine were fighting the fires, the Gazette reported.
In Quebec, there have been more than 340 fires so far this year, many sparked by lighting strikes and made worse by drier than normal weather in April and May.
The smoky haze over New England was affecting visibility in many areas, where it was reduced to 5 miles in Lawrence and 10 in Boston, and only 1.5 miles on Nantucket and 2 miles on Chatham, on Cape Cod.
In Massachusetts, an air quality alert extended from the central part of the state to every coastal county.
The smoke was worst on Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Ekster. He said the alert was in effect until around 8 p.m. Monday, when winds were expected to shift and blow the smoke out to sea.
Jeffrey Underhill of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services said residents who suffer from asthma or other respiratory ailments may want to avoid smokey areas.
"We recommend, especially if you can smell the smoke out there, that maybe it's not a good idea to be spending a whole lot of time outside doing strenuous activities today (Monday), " Underhill said.
He said the levels of air pollution that were measured in some portions of New Hampshire could be high enough to trigger reactions in relatively healthy individuals.
