Seattle and Portland Area are Sitting Under a Cloud of Smoke and Ash

On October 9th a fire started that would cause 2,900 homes to be emergency evacuated and highway 2 northeast to be closed. This fire has reached over 2000 acres in the Nakia Creek area. Though there are no injuries nor building damage reported, this fire affects the people who live in this area. Especially those playing sports. Because of the smoke all sports have been postponed. To put the size of this fire into perspective this fire reaches so far that is nears Portland city all the way up by mount St Helens monument.  

This morning as I walked out to my car, I seen a thin layer of ash on my car. To think that is the very air we are inhaling into our lungs, so polluted by ash that it is thick enough to leave a layer, like a sprinkle of snow. The hazard level has ranked at 456, so hazardous that it is rated world’s worst air quality. Yahoo news wrote an article on the air quality in Washington. The title was “Seattle has the worst air quality in the world due to the fires.” It goes on to explain that adding to Nakia Creek Fire there is another fire near Bolt Creek which is east of Seattle and has burned about 16,000 acres of forest. Though this one is much larger it is not getting as much news conversance. Both fires are believed to be human-sparked. The combination of these two fires has put the people of Seattle down to Portland in a heavy haze of smoke and ash. With the famous Washington rain on its way we will hopefully see the air begin to clear up shortly.