Air Quality Advisory Issued for Wednesday Due to Wildfire Smoke
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is issuing an air quality advisory for Wednesday due to smoke from wildfires elsewhere in California.
The air district had issued a more serious Spare the Air alert for Tuesday with pollution levels expected to exceed federal health standards in some parts of the region, but the pollution was forecasted to lessen Wednesday.
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The continuing air quality issues stem largely from the smoke produced by fires in Tulare County. The KNP Complex began as two lightning-sparked fires that eventually merged and has scorched more than 37 square miles in the heart of sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.
A third fire -- the Windy Fire -- had grown to 26,051 acres and was just 5 percent contained as it burned in the Giant Sequoia National Monument area of Sequoia National Forest and the Tule River Indian Reservation.
If people smell smoke, the air district advises them to stay inside with windows and doors closed, and to set their air conditioning and car vent systems to recirculate to prevent outside air from coming inside.
Air quality readings are available at baaqmd.gov/highs.
To find out when a Spare the Air Alert is in effect, residents can sign up for text alerts by texting the word "START" to 817-57, register for email AirAlerts at www.sparetheair.org, call 1(800) HELP-AIR, download the Spare the Air App or connect with Spare the Air on Facebook or Twitter.
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