The Daily News of Los Angeles
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PALMDALE, Calif. — Smoke from a giant forest fire burning more than 30 miles away has reduced visibility and increased air pollution in the Antelope Valley, but not to unhealthy levels, an air-quality official said Wednesday.
Particulate levels have crept up, particularly in the evenings, from the 10-day-old Day Fire that by Wednesday afternoon had blackened more than 29,000 acres west of Interstate 5.
“We’re monitoring it,” Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District operations manager Bret Banks said Wednesday.
Visibility at Edwards Air Force Base was 35 miles Wednesday afternoon — compared with 85 miles Monday. Visibility at Air Force Plant 42 at its lowest Wednesday afternoon was nine miles.
Overall air quality was predicted to be moderate today in the Antelope Valley, with ozone — a product of car exhausts and factories rather than forest fires — the deciding factor, the Antelope Valley AQMD said.
Started in Ventura County on Labor Day — which provided its name — the fire remains just 25 percent contained, with no predictions of when it could be fully controlled. The fire was blamed on somebody burning debris in Los Padres National Forest north of Lake Piru.
It’s unusual for wildfires in Southern California to last longer than a week, but because of the steep and rugged terrain, firefighters have struggled to contain the fire.
Authorities expect the fire to burn southeast to at least Canton Canyon northwest of Castaic. And so firefighters plan to make a stand a little farther south from the canyon, at a “contingency line” two miles north of homes in Romero and Hasley canyons.