Smoke gets in your eyes
17/09/12 04:48
Just about everyone in town is feeling it. We have scratchy eyes and runny noses. We’re sneezing a lot and generally feel like allergy sufferers in the springtime. It isn’t springtime, and folks who normally don’t have much problem with allergies are feeling it as much as anyone else. We’ve been breathing too much smoke. And we’ve been breathing it for weeks, now.
Probably the main contributor to our smoky skies is the Sheepherder fire, burning in steep country outside of Casper, Wyoming. Fire officials are reporting that the 15,556-acre fire is now 90% contained and they hope to be able to announce full containment at the public meeting scheduled for 5 this afternoon. The winds are causing flare-ups and putting pressure on the fire lines in some places. Red flag conditions continue. There are still some structures that are threatened and crews are working to improve protection.
It has been a bad fire. 37 homes have been destroyed along with 23 outbuildings. An additional two homes were damaged by the fire. And there are an additional 850 homes that are still threatened. A lot of anxious residents are waiting for news. Hundreds have been evacuated.
We’re a long ways from the fire. Our only problem is the smoke.
The smoke does give us the gift of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
There are some other big blazes across the west. Outside of Hamilton, Montana, there are 400 houses evacuated. In eastern Washington a 60,000-acre blaze has destroyed three homes near Grand Coulee. There is another fire in the hills west of Wenatchee and a 1,000-acre burn east of Seattle. As many as 80 fires have been sparked by lightning in the Cascades in western Washington. The Millie Fire south of Bozeman, Montana continues to burn and the Horsethief Canyon Fire south of Jackson, Wyoming is threatening communications towers and other structures.
Hunting season is just beginning. The continued red flag conditions promise the possibility of human-caused fires for a couple of months. 2012 is going to go into the history books as a year with a lot of fires.
So we shouldn’t be complaining about smoky skies. But the itchy eyes are uncomfortable. It would be interesting to know how many more bottles of eye trops area stores are selling. I know we’re going through more than usual.
Smoke is made up of a complex mixture of gasses and fine particles. The irritation is caused by those particles. The microscopic particles get into eyes and respiratory systems. It isn’t much of a health threat for those who are already healthy, but it is a danger to those who have heart or lung diseases. Shortness of breath and fatigue are the main symptoms for those who suffer from such conditions. It is possible that some angina patients may even feel chest pain or palpitations. Older adults and young children are more susceptible to smoke-related health problems.
The air quality forecast for our area for today remains at the level that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. It has been at that level for several days, now. The thing about long-term exposure to smoky conditions is that we lose our sensitivity to the odor of the smoke. When the smoke first started to settle into the hills, we could smell it. It alarmed us and we wondered if there were fires much closer than was the case. As the days passed, we adjusted to the smoke and we aren’t noticing the smell the way we did in those early days.
But life goes on. We have our routines and activities and most of us haven’t limited what we do. Even the brilliant red-orange sunrise doesn’t surprise me as much as it did a couple of weeks ago. When you stop to think about it, we humans are pretty capable of adjusting to changes. We can live with minor irritations and learn to cope with stresses much better than one might think. Life goes on.
I have been wondering, however, about the ways I add to the smoke in the air. I have, so far, not gone to propane for my barbecue. I burn charcoal in my outdoor cooker and I use hickory and apple wood for smoking meats and vegetables. I like the smoky flavor and I have learned to use charcoal for Dutch oven cooking. A month ago there was an ornamental crab tree at the church that died and had to be removed. I’ve been chunking the wood from that tree for use in the smoker and the other night I used the apple wood as I cooked a couple of small steaks for our supper. I’ve been looking forward to smoking a chicken on the apple wood.
But it does get smoky in the back yard when I’m using the wood that way. I soak the wood in water so the steam combines with the smoke and the wood burns slowly on the bed of coals. It makes for good flavor, but it does contribute to the overall smokiness of the air.
My little fires are small in comparison with the main source of smoke around here. But I can choose not to burn. We don’t have a similar control over the wildfires in the mountains and hills of the American West. We are going to see out-of-control fire for the rest of our lives and there are still some more severe fire seasons ahead as the forests deal with the excess of beetle-infested trees and high fuel build-ups caused by a generation of effective firefighting. More and more people have built their homes in the forests in search of the tranquility, solitude and other gifts that the woods have to offer.
So we’re hoping for calm conditions to help the firefighters and a gentle breeze over here to help clear the air. That’s a tall order. It is likely that we’ll be breathing the smoke for a few days yet.
The stores should continue to do a banner business in eye drops.
It has been a bad fire. 37 homes have been destroyed along with 23 outbuildings. An additional two homes were damaged by the fire. And there are an additional 850 homes that are still threatened. A lot of anxious residents are waiting for news. Hundreds have been evacuated.
We’re a long ways from the fire. Our only problem is the smoke.
There are some other big blazes across the west. Outside of Hamilton, Montana, there are 400 houses evacuated. In eastern Washington a 60,000-acre blaze has destroyed three homes near Grand Coulee. There is another fire in the hills west of Wenatchee and a 1,000-acre burn east of Seattle. As many as 80 fires have been sparked by lightning in the Cascades in western Washington. The Millie Fire south of Bozeman, Montana continues to burn and the Horsethief Canyon Fire south of Jackson, Wyoming is threatening communications towers and other structures.
Hunting season is just beginning. The continued red flag conditions promise the possibility of human-caused fires for a couple of months. 2012 is going to go into the history books as a year with a lot of fires.
So we shouldn’t be complaining about smoky skies. But the itchy eyes are uncomfortable. It would be interesting to know how many more bottles of eye trops area stores are selling. I know we’re going through more than usual.
Smoke is made up of a complex mixture of gasses and fine particles. The irritation is caused by those particles. The microscopic particles get into eyes and respiratory systems. It isn’t much of a health threat for those who are already healthy, but it is a danger to those who have heart or lung diseases. Shortness of breath and fatigue are the main symptoms for those who suffer from such conditions. It is possible that some angina patients may even feel chest pain or palpitations. Older adults and young children are more susceptible to smoke-related health problems.
The air quality forecast for our area for today remains at the level that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. It has been at that level for several days, now. The thing about long-term exposure to smoky conditions is that we lose our sensitivity to the odor of the smoke. When the smoke first started to settle into the hills, we could smell it. It alarmed us and we wondered if there were fires much closer than was the case. As the days passed, we adjusted to the smoke and we aren’t noticing the smell the way we did in those early days.
But life goes on. We have our routines and activities and most of us haven’t limited what we do. Even the brilliant red-orange sunrise doesn’t surprise me as much as it did a couple of weeks ago. When you stop to think about it, we humans are pretty capable of adjusting to changes. We can live with minor irritations and learn to cope with stresses much better than one might think. Life goes on.
I have been wondering, however, about the ways I add to the smoke in the air. I have, so far, not gone to propane for my barbecue. I burn charcoal in my outdoor cooker and I use hickory and apple wood for smoking meats and vegetables. I like the smoky flavor and I have learned to use charcoal for Dutch oven cooking. A month ago there was an ornamental crab tree at the church that died and had to be removed. I’ve been chunking the wood from that tree for use in the smoker and the other night I used the apple wood as I cooked a couple of small steaks for our supper. I’ve been looking forward to smoking a chicken on the apple wood.
But it does get smoky in the back yard when I’m using the wood that way. I soak the wood in water so the steam combines with the smoke and the wood burns slowly on the bed of coals. It makes for good flavor, but it does contribute to the overall smokiness of the air.
My little fires are small in comparison with the main source of smoke around here. But I can choose not to burn. We don’t have a similar control over the wildfires in the mountains and hills of the American West. We are going to see out-of-control fire for the rest of our lives and there are still some more severe fire seasons ahead as the forests deal with the excess of beetle-infested trees and high fuel build-ups caused by a generation of effective firefighting. More and more people have built their homes in the forests in search of the tranquility, solitude and other gifts that the woods have to offer.
So we’re hoping for calm conditions to help the firefighters and a gentle breeze over here to help clear the air. That’s a tall order. It is likely that we’ll be breathing the smoke for a few days yet.
The stores should continue to do a banner business in eye drops.