Residents warned about dangers of poor air quality
By Mike O’Neal
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Copyright 2007 Chattanooga Publishing Company
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Gray days of summer are here, courtesy of unchecked wildfires burning more than 300 miles south of Chattanooga.
“Fires from South Georgia and North Florida have created the bad air,” said Amber McCorvie, spokeswoman for the Air Pollution Control Bureau in Chattanooga.
Today is rated code orange, meaning people with heart or lung disease, older adults and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors, Ms. McCorvie said.
The gray haze over Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia is smoke from fires burning in the Okefenokee Swamp that have stalled after being blown northward.
“I walked outside today and noticed how hazy it looked -- and not like a heat haze,” said Lisa Morgan, a coordinator for the Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation in downtown Chattanooga.
The city sits in a bowl, Ms. McCorvie said, adding that the stagnant, sooty air will clear only if there is rain, strong winds or the Southern fires are extinguished.
“We were reading 17.7 micrograms per cubic meter, which is a 55 on the air-quality index at midnight ... which is in the moderate range,” she said of the particulate count taken by the bureau. “Twelve hours later, at noon on Thursday, it was 74.4 micrograms per cubic meter. That is 157 on the air-quality index making it fall in the unhealthy range for the general population. If it were a 24-hour average, it would be a code red.”
Particle pollution can aggravate heart or lung disease and can cause coughing, chest discomfort, wheezing and shortness of breath, according to Kasey Poole, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Health Department.
“People should heed these (code orange) advisories because of the potential health effects,” Ms. Poole said.
The danger of wildfires usually ends in mid-April, but dry conditions have kept firefighters busy battling blazes in Walker and surrounding counties, according to Steve Blackwell, chief ranger for Dade and Walker counties with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Those fires included a 20-acre and a 3-acre fire Wednesday, and a 6-acre fire Thursday that was caused by sparks when a lawn mower hit a rock while cutting a field of rye grass for hay, Mr. Blackwell said.
“It’s so dry that green vegetation is burning,” he said.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for scattered showers and thundershowers beginning Saturday and continuing into midweek.
But prolonged drought throughout the region means a quarter- to half-inch of rainfall does little to remove the threat of fire, and local firefighters are finding water is ineffective in dousing local fires.
“We just take our dozers in and remove the fuel source,” Mr. Blackwell said.
He said dealing with fires such as those in southern Georgia will require more than bulldozers and hoses.
“Don’t just pray for rain,” Mr. Blackwell said. “It will take a hurricane to put out a fire that size.”