RENO (AP) - Health district officials in northern Nevada are closely monitoring air quality concerns after a smoky haze from a wildfire in the Tahoe National Forest more than 60 miles away descended along the eastern Sierra front from Reno to Carson City.
The Washoe County Health District's most recent samples Monday showed small particulates from the smoke at the upper end of the "moderate" level, said Daniel K. Inouye, the branch chief for monitoring and planning in the district's division of air quality management.
That's approaching the level that triggers a ban on wood-burning in the winter - the use of wood-burning stoves is prohibited in the region when air quality bumps into the next-worse category of "unhealthy" - and conditions could continue to be hazy for several days.
The American Fire has burned nearly 2 square miles, or more than 1,200 acres, of heavy timber west of Lake Tahoe about halfway between Reno and Sacramento in an area southeast of U.S. Interstate 80 near Foresthill, Calif.
U.S. Forest Service officials have no projections for containment.
The weather forecast earlier this week called for light winds of 10 mph to 15 mph to pick up in the afternoon and clear out some local valleys, but the same winds likely will push in more smoke from the fire.
Similar conditions are expected over the next few days, with winds increasing into Friday, the National Weather Service said. If the fire remains active, the smoke is expected to continue flowing into Lake Tahoe's north shore and spilling into the Reno metro area.
At current levels around Reno, the smoke shouldn't affect the general public, but sensitive populations like children and the elderly should to try to stay inside or at least minimize strenuous activity, district spokesman Phil Ulibarri said. He said people suffering from asthma or bronchitis also should keep close tabs on the conditions.
"We don't want people to breathe this stuff, especially little kids and older folks," he said.
Predicting air quality isn't easy.
``It depends which way the wind is blowing,' Inouye said. ``And it can change, very quickly.'
On Sunday afternoon, a day after the fire started, ``the air was nice and clean, then the wind shifted just a little bit and brought the smoke in. Air quality and pollution can change just as quickly as the weather,' he said.
Ulibarri said they work closely with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service while maintaining 24-hour monitoring of air quality in the county.
The highest reading in Reno this week has been 90, within the moderate range that stretches from 51 to 100.
The worst conditions in the Reno area over the past decade or so were recorded in the summer of 2008 when several wildfires raged for consecutive weeks in northern California, Inouye said.
``It was the unhealthy range, which is much worse,' he said. ``But this isn't anything to ignore either. It affects more people as the pollution gets worse.'[[In-content Ad]]
