Remnants of the York fire burn a Joshua tree in July 2023, at Walking Box Ranch in Searchlight. Wildfires from across the region exacerbate problems for children, senior citizens and other residents with respiratory ailments.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Mary Wagner could smell summer in the air. It’s a woody, acrid odor that tends to cause watery eyes and a scratchy throat.
The smoke that wafts into the Las Vegas Valley each year as the mercury rises comes from wildfires in neighboring states and the surrounding mountains.
“Here in Las Vegas … our air quality is pretty bad, and a lot of it has to do with the wildfires in California,” said Wagner, a clean-air advocate who lives in Las Vegas.
Last month, Wagner and her 13-year-old son, who has asthma, were forced to stay indoors as smoke from a fire burning north of Los Angeles created hazy skies in Las Vegas and prompted Clark County to issue a two-day smoke alert.
Wagner, who works with a group called Moms Clean Air Force, said climate change was to blame for rising temperatures and worsening natural disasters like wildfires.
It’s the group’s goal to press lawmakers to pass legislation that addresses climate change.
“We feel it is our duty to protect our planet, and every day that we delay working toward effective climate solutions, we put our communities at really great risk, and it affects our health,” Wagner said.
Smoke from the Post fire, which started June 15 near Gorman, Calif., left most of Clark County at a “moderate” air-quality level.
Kevin MacDonald, public administrator for the Clark County Department of Environment and Sustainability, said the air quality exceeded what the EPA considers acceptable levels of particulate matter and ozone.
“It’s ozone season, so ozone is going to be elevated this time of year anyway, but for particulate matter we’ve been pretty stable the last several months,” he said.
Ozone gas forms when pollutants from vehicles and industry that contain volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides combine, and gets much worse under strong sunlight and hot conditions, the EPA said. Particulate matter in the air comes from dirt, dust, soot, smoke or chemicals like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from cars and industrial sources, the agency added.
MacDonald said the agency didn’t know what to expect for the rest of the seasonal air-quality warning period, which runs until Sept. 30.
The department started issuing a several months-long ozone and air quality advisory several years ago because ongoing drought and climate change noticeably increased the number of fires each summer.
As of Monday, the county’s air-quality index monitoring stations all showed levels in the “good” to “moderate” range.
In 2023, there were 18 days with an air-quality warning. One of those days, June 28, came directly from smoke from the York Fire in California. The fire started in Mojave National Preserve, burned across 93,078 acres, and took 22 days to fully contain, according to InciWeb. The fire crossed state lines and came within 50 miles of Las Vegas, burning 9,127 acres of Clark County grassland.
“We wanted people to be on the lookout for that,” MacDonald said.
On days with poor air quality, children, senior citizens and residents with respiratory and heart disease should stay indoors, officials said. People are also advised to keep their home windows closed and change indoor air filters if they are dirty.
The Environmental Protection Agency advises residents to focus on their preparation for poor air-quality events, including stocking up on medicine and food so vulnerable residents — especially senior citizens — don’t need to leave their homes.
Additionally, the EPA suggests residents create a clean room in their home with limited windows — bad air seeps through cracks — and no fireplace. The agency advises having a portable air cleaner in the room and N-95 face masks.
They also ask residents to stay informed, which means following updates in newspapers and television news, or on social media. Clark County and the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas have regular updates.
Adrienne Freeman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service in California, said within the past month Southern California has seen an uptick in small grass fires at low elevations.
She said the past two years of heavy rain in the region spurred grass growth, and recent hot weather dried that grass out into perfect fuel for fires.
“That’s not unusual for Southern California, but it is a little unusual that we had a fire that big in Southern California this early in the season,” Freeman said, referring to the 15,563-acre Post fire.
High winds helped the Post fire spread faster and drove smoke east, she said. “Wind pattern is one of the things that’s most difficult to predict,” Freeman said.
People should be much more careful about possible sources of ignition whenever intense wind and hot, dry conditions coincide, she said.
For Wagner, being mindful of the bad climate is a way of life to protect her child. She monitors air conditions through FEMA and doesn’t hesitate canceling outdoor activities at a moment’s notice.
“There are times his PE teacher has to send him inside, which sucks because his favorite activity, playing soccer or basketball or whatever it is, they are doing,” she said. “He has to go back inside, take his inhaler and sit in the nurse’s office.”
And like all families, Wagner said she just wanted her son to be “able to enjoy his childhood the way he should.”
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