Smoke in my town is so bad we cannot breath

United States
September 8, 2007 2:38am CST
The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has declaired an emergnecy for the central San Joaquine Valley which started on Wednesday and stays in effect until Saturday afternoon. There are two fires one east of Sacramento and one in Santa Clara county. Both of these areas are a two hour drive from here. Sacrament is North of here and Santa Clara is West of here. I have had bad headaches from the smoke in the air. Schools in the area have canceled outdoor activities due to bad air, children had been kept in during recess. How sad we have polluted our air so bad that a forrest fire will make our air so bad that children cannot even go out and play. I hope the fires are put out soon and the smoke clears out soon. http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=5640389
3 people like this
5 responses
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
8 Sep 07
That's horrible news. Let's hope the situation improves out there. BTW, in India, the pollution levels are generally high and there are no governmental emergencies to rectify that. People here carry on living even as the pollution levels are soaring!! Cheers! Ram
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Sep 07
I am sorry to hear you do not have any governmental agencies to rectify air quality. It sounds like the people need to ban together and demand better air quality. I know it is easier said than done.
1 person likes this
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
9 Sep 07
We are now so used to the polluted air that I feel that if the air is less polluted, we might struggle :) Cheers! Ram
1 person likes this
• United States
8 Sep 07
Yeah, it was pretty bad out here yesterday. I live in Santa Clara and when we left for work on Thursday morning there was a thick haze through the entire city. The local news reports were saying that there were people down here in the Bay Area that could actually smell the smoke and the fire happening in the Sierras (the Moonlight forest fire). I know that they have been working on the fires for a while; my neighbor in our complex is a San Jose fire fighter and he's been out there battling the Lick fire for a while now. I actually grew up right on the other side of where that fire is. Someone was saying before that the fire here in Santa Clara county was started by someone who was setting garbage on fire in a garbage can and it got out of control. I don't know how accurate that is or if it is even true, but most of the time these kinds of fires are anything but natural. They are so destructive.
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
14 Sep 07
I understand that you really suffered from the smoke mentioned. I hope the worst situation had over and you could enjoy fresh air at present. My place does experience the problems of air pollution here. It is mainly the haze caused by the fires of the tropical forests from the neighbor country. When the situation becomes very bad the people here have to put on masks and cut down all outdoor activities. We couldn’t do much other than to wait for the rain to wash it off or the monsoon wind to blow it off. The haze is quite harmful to our respiratory systems.
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
12 Sep 07
I am so sorry to hear that you are having to deal with such conditions in your neighborhood. I remember there was a fire over here for a few hours and I could not take the smoke. I have asthma and I could hardly breathe. I hope that this does not make anyone too sick or cause any permenant damage to anyone. I know that the children and elderly are having a hard time with all of that. I will be praying that the fires will be put out soon.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
8 Sep 07
That's horrible...how did these fires start anyway? I've heard how CA always has these wildfires going---I was wondering...I don't know quite where Cisco is..is that anywhere near you as I have a friend who lives there. I heard that in the news video there that if one sees smoke, smells smoke that it's bad as it probably has toxins in the air!
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Sep 07
I do not know how the fires got started, but this is a bad year because we are in draught right now. Good thing the air has been better today. One of my friend's is breathing better today. I feel so sorry for people when they cannot breath and there is nothing I can do to help them.