East Coast Smoke and Canadian Fire?

[captstanm1]

Let's see if we can get this back on track.

I saw the news late last night and the weather showed the dip in the Jet Stream and the dry heated air from the Canadian Fire. My son's are in New York/New Jersey Area and I am gonna see what they have to say about the smoke where they are.

Have not seen anything about the Canadian Fire on here. Anyone got any scoop on how long it has been burning and how much and homes endangered?

Thanks to NJFFS_A16 for keeping us informed.

[tanker5117]

Left for work this morning at around 8:30. When I walked out, I could smell the smoke, Very strong. Made riding the bike to work just a little fun (cough, cough)

[NJFFSA16]

The article is now posted in the Firehouse.com news section. Apparently they have 11 large wildfires...no control. My scanner is just loaded with "smoke in the area" calls from residents. If we have a "real" fire locally...it will be hard to discern where it is. I stopped at the fire lookout tower yesterday...and it was quite remarkable....the area was totally shrouded in smoke. All we can do is respond to every call...and decide whether it is Canada smoke or an actual fire in the area.

[BCmdepas3280]

Will the brothers from Canada please knock it off I live in the mohawk valley (NY)and it looks like the end of the world here. Just kidding , but I will tell you one thing Im sure glad I don't have to fight those silly things. I will take a structure fire any day . Good luck

[SFDchief]

The smoke started here around 4 PM yesterday where every dept in the area recieved calls regarding "outside smoke conditions". Saw visible, moderatly heavy smoke, smelling like brush. However, found no source. We had three total last night in different areas of town. In all, there was probably several dozen reports of smoke in the county (Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City).

After about a half hour of this going on, the county transmited a National Weather Service Bullitan regarding the Canadian forest fires.
After learning this we had to "Blame Canada" on all three alarms.

Here it is now, 11:00am, the next day and there is a visible haze in the air, with a moderate odor. One dept nearby got called out regarding this. Luckily not us..... yet?

Hopefully the media bringing this unusual occurance to the public will deter people in calling 911.

I read on another post that this smoke drifted down as far as New Jersey. Wonder how far it will go?

[Pvt. Stray Dog]

I'm 9 miles west of Boston and the sky here is an odd yellow that no one has seen before. They say it's haze from the wildfires

[NJFFSA16]

An exerpt from our local fire weather forecast today, Sunday.
--------------------------------------------
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
SUN JUL 7 2002

...SMOKE FROM CANADIAN FIRES STILL MOVING ACROSS THE REGION...

NORTHERLY WINDS ALOFT ARE BRINGING SMOKE FROM THE FOREST FIRES OVER
NORTHERN QUEBEC PROVINCE SOUTH INTO OUR REGION. THE POINT OF ORIGIN
IS NEAR JAMES BAY...WHICH IS ABOUT 700 MILES NORTH OF OUR FORECAST
AREA. VISIBILITIES ACROSS THE REGION WERE REDUCED TO AROUND 3 TO 4
MILES. IN ADDITION TO THE LOWERED VISIBILITY THERE COULD ALSO BE
A SLIGHT SMELL OF THE SMOKE. THESE CONDITIONS WILL LINGER THROUGH
THE REST OF TODAY AS WINDS ALOFT WILL CONTINUE TO BRING THE SMOKE
THROUGH US.

THE WINDS ALOFT SHOULD BEGIN TO SHIFT TO A MORE NORTHWEST FLOW AND
THIS SHOULD HELP TO PUSH THE SMOKE OUT OF THE AREA.

[Adze39]

So that explains why I was smelling smoke yesterday. I had relatives smell it in other areas of CT also.

[NJFFSA16]

From CNEWS, Canada
Forest fires rage in northern Quebec

MONTREAL (CP) -- A forest fire raging in the northern Quebec region of Nemiscau, near James Bay, gained momentum Saturday and the resulting smoke from it and 45 blazes in the province spread as far south as New York state.

The Nemiscau fire has eaten up 600 square kilometres of forest since it began July 2, and all access roads to the area have been closed to through traffic. The fire is moving at a pace of 50 metres per minute.

The nearby village of Nemaska, home to about 500 Cree aboriginals, has been completely evacuated. An offshoot of the Nemiscau fire had reached to within 800 metres of the village Friday, but the fire had retreated to two kilometres away by Saturday evening.

Smoke was so dense the provincial forest fire protection service cannot fly its planes through the region.

Visibility in Toronto was reduced to three kilometres Saturday, prompting many calls to Environment Canada looking for an explanation.

"I had someone call me to say it (the smell) was a welcome relief from the garbage," said Alain Boisvert, a forecaster at Environment Canada, referring to a city strike now in its second week that has resulted in garbage piling up all over the city.

Steve McLaughlin, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Weather Service in Albany, N.Y., said a patch of smoke about 300 kilometres in diameter, hovered Saturday over the cities of Watertown, Syracuse and Binghamton before heading south toward New York City.

"The skies will be very milky, very hazy, across New York and southern New England," he said. "It may seem like it's getting cloudy, but all the milkiness in the sky is smoke."

The Quebec forest fire protection service considers the situation critical, with no rain expected until at least until Tuesday.

"There are many, many fires that are out of control, about 11 in all," said spokeswoman Chantal Drapeau. "The forecast is calling for nice weather through Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday, and they are even calling for stronger winds as of Sunday. So none of this helps us."

The 11 fires that are considered out of control are all north of Lac St-Jean, between the Manouane Reservoir and Lac Albanel, Drapeau said.

On Friday, 500,000 Quebecers had their electricity cut when the Nemiscau fire came too close to a Hydro-Quebec electrical tower, forcing the utility to shut it down and re-route power from other areas.

There is a fire ban almost everywhere in the province north of the St. Lawrence River.

[NJFFSA16]

More from the NWS
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY

158 PM EDT SUN JUL 7 2002

...SMOKE FROM CANADIAN FIRES STILL MOVING ACROSS THE REGION...

NORTHERLY WINDS ALOFT CONTINUES TO BRING SMOKE FROM THE FOREST
FIRES OVER NORTHERN QUEBEC PROVINCE SOUTH INTO OUR REGION. THE POINT
OF ORIGIN IS NEAR JAMES BAY...WHICH IS ABOUT 700 MILES NORTH OF OUR
FORECAST AREA. VISIBILITIES ACROSS THE REGION HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO AROUND 2 TO 3 MILES. IN ADDITION TO THE LOWERED VISIBILITY THERE
COULD ALSO BE A SLIGHT SMELL OF THE SMOKE. THESE CONDITIONS WILL
LINGER THROUGH THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING AS WINDS ALOFT WILL CONTINUE TO BRING THE SMOKE THROUGH US.

THE WINDS ALOFT SHOULD BEGIN TO SHIFT TO MORE OF A NORTHWEST FLOW
AND THIS SHOULD HELP TO PUSH THE SMOKE OUT OF THE AREA. EXPECT
CONDITIONS...AND THE AIR QUALITY TO IMPROVE LATE TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING...EVENTUALLY RETURNING TO NORMAL MONDAY AFTERNOON.

[Diane E]

Could smell it all across Long Island, as well.

[CHFD14]

The smoke haze is covering much of Central PA. There have been numberous calls for Smoke Investigations in the area.

[Jolly Roger]

I find myself wondering if there is a marked increase in respiratory related EMS calls due to the smoke?

Curious.

[ALSfirefighter]

I noticed it about 3:30 when we started washing out rig. It also smelled a little plasticy to me, but then again, I haven't really smelled to many wildfires, lol. I called a few of the other stations because we hadn't been notified of anything and I was busy watching the Old Timers game at Yankee Stadium instead of the weather channel. It was about 1615 hours when we started having engines banged out on 'outside smoke investigations.' Which I didn't mind at all being I was detailed back to my ladder co. Just as Mdepas said, definately gave the sky an interesting color, just too bad there wasn't an eclipse, wouldn't of needed to much exposed film the sun looked eerie and you could look right at it. Again this morning I was up in Putnam County which borders Westchester to the north and could smell it. The entire river valley was clouded with smoke.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Jolly Roger...

I was on duty today, no respiratory distress calls in our 3 districts. The haze is in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Looking at the sun this morning and all through the day reminded me of the first Star Wars movie...the view of the twin suns of Tatooine. The view through my sunglasses was a bright orange ball in a yellow sky...very strange!

[tanker5117]

I just got home, rode my bike. Took about 1/2 hour. Other than it being hot and muggy, it was fine. The smoke seemed to have moved on, for the most part. We'll see what it is like tomorrow.

[LACAPT]

The problem with a lot of those fires we get in Canada and the ones in Quebec in particular is that there is very few if any roads in the area and can only be accessed by smoke jumpers and fought with air tankers, choppers and the like. The cost of fighting these large fires is enormous and if they are not theatening property or very valuable timber the are left to burn themselves out. As we are finding out from the experts that the forest growth in the past 20-50 years has not been let burn as in the natural cycle like it use to, there by promoting heavy undergrowth and a buildup of heavy fuel loads. This in turn causes bigger forest fires and bigger headaches for everyone involved. I think we (man) has ceated these problems to some extent by to much meddling in the natural cycle but what do you do correct it. I don't have the answer, hope some one comes up with one soon.

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

I live in North Jersey. Doesn't smell or look any different to me! lol!

[Adze39]

Originally posted by George Wendt, CFI
I live in North Jersey. Doesn't smell or look any different to me! lol!

You're leaving yourself too open on that one!

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

You're leaving yourself too open on that one!

(Pssst! That was the point! It's called satire!)