San Francisco: schools and cable cars must close on smoke campfire | News from the world

Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area have been canceled for Friday and residents have been warned to stay indoors, the smoke descending from forest fires to hundreds of kilometers, producing quality levels of the air worse than those of the notoriously polluted cities of India and China.

"The campfires in Butte County have generated a huge amount of smoke," said Kristine Roselius, spokeswoman for the Air Quality Management District in the Bay Area. "This smoke is just sinking in the Bay Area right now."

Officials from San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and other districts announced Thursday that schools would remain closed on Friday.

The San Francisco Transit Agency, meanwhile, stopped the operation of the city's iconic cable cars to protect the "safety and health of our customers and employees". The local Department of Public Health said, "People should stay indoors with the windows closed and continue to stay until the quality of the air improves. "

Air quality levels, described on a scale from green (good) to red (unhealthy), purple (very unhealthy) and brown (dangerous), have been red for much of the week since forest, the deadliest in California's history. , started on November 8th.

But as the wind blew south on Thursday, the densely populated cities south of the fire saw pollution rise in the purple levels and, in Sacramento, in the brown levels. The ranking of air quality in major cities around the world for November 15 was the worst ranking in San Francisco, ahead of Delhi and Lahore.

Roselius explained that the air quality was deteriorating in part because of a temperature inversion that trapped smoke in the cold air over the bay.

"The warmer air is above the colder air," she said. "It acts like a lid. Basically, there is a trap and we continue to have new smoke. "

The smoke should be even worse on Friday and remain at unhealthy levels next week.

"Even healthy people among us are affected," said Roselius. Fine particles can have immediate health effects, especially in children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems.

The demand for face masks for particulates has risen sharply, but experts have warned that masks do not replace indoor stays and that they are not suitable for children or bearded people.