By: Gordon Williams, American Red Cross Volunteer

Today, climate crisis impacts are disrupting lives and causing devastating harm. Extreme weather disasters like wildfires are becoming more frequent and severe, and this summer poses a heightened risk for wildfires across Washington state.

Wildfires burned over 160,000 acres in 2023 and the National Interagency Fire Center, which tracks fires nationwide, is warning that heat and sparse rainfall will make 2024 even worse.

Even if no wildfire burns close to you this summer, you still could suffer serious injury from the smoke that wildfires generate. Washington residents must contend with smoke from fires within the state as well as smoke from fires in nearby states or in Canada.

Sometimes the smoke is thick enough to turn day into night. Eyes burn and you cough. Even when you can’t see the smoke, it is there, and dangerous. The federal government's Environmental Protection Agency identifies wildfire smoke as a complex mixture of potentially perilous pollutants. It warns that exposure to the pollutants can lead to such relatively minor effects as eye and throat irritation, but also to heart failure and premature death.

You can escape from a wildfire by evacuating your home and moving to a shelter. The American Red Cross opens dozens of shelters each wildfire season. As I write this, Red Cross teams within the American Red Cross Northwest Region are assisting at fires in Chelan County and near Spokane. But wildfire smoke can spread out over thousands of square miles, putting people at risk who are nowhere near an active fire.

Cleveland Clinic, a highly respected medical facility, has done a study of wildfire smoke. It concludes that “smoke from larger fires often travels thousands of miles while riding the Earth’s jet streams. Pollution from wildfire smoke can rise to 14 miles into the air and then is carried by wind currents, which is why it affects everyone.”

So how do you survive the 2024 wildfire season without experiencing the health risks that wildfire smoke can pose? The answer is to do all you can to prevent the smoke from entering your body.

Cleveland Clinic offers this obvious suggestion: When it is smokey, stay indoors. Avoid strenuous activity if you must go out. “Pay attention to air quality alerts,” it says. Your local weather forecasts will have up-to-date alerts on air quality. Your local department of emergency management may report when local air quality becomes iffy.

When you hear reports about wildfires in or near Washington, assume that wildfire smoke will soon become a problem. Visit the website airnow.gov for real-time updates on air quality conditions.

Of course, you will know it when conditions get bad. The smoke will be visible, affecting eyes and throat. Staying inside as much as possible won’t eliminate the danger but it will minimize it. So, skip your gardening and your daily walk or jog. Dogs suffer from the smoke as much as humans, even if they can’t articulate it, so keep dog walks as short as possible. Otherwise, keep pets indoors and away from smoke.

Keep windows at home closed, and don’t run vents or fans that might draw smoke into your house. Air conditioners mostly recirculate air that is already inside your house, so it should be safe to run them even when smoke is present. But turn off features that draw in air from the outside and shut down the unit if smoke is drawn into your home.

Smoke tends to rise during the day and settles closer to the ground late in the day or overnight. It tends to be the thickest early in the morning. If you must go out, try to do it around midday.

Talk to your doctor about medical conditions you have that could be exacerbated by smoke. Ask your doctor or visit redcross.org/nwwildfiresafety for tips on staying safe during wildfire season.