“Some of the Planet’s Most Polluted Skies Are Now Over the West Coast”, The New York Times

SEATTLE — The billowing wildfire smoke that has blanketed much of the West Coast with a caustic haze also began settling into the atmosphere thousands of miles away on Tuesday.

While more favorable weather has allowed firefighters to make some progress against the devastating blazes in Oregon, the crisis was far from over: The largest fires were still mostly uncontained, the air has been some of the most polluted on the planet for a week, and the state was setting up a mobile morgue as crews continued to sift through the rubble for missing people.

In California, where 25 people have died this year and 3.2 million acres — a modern record — have burned, officials had both successes and setbacks: Firefighters there contained two fires, one in Yuba County and the other north of Willits, and were trying to suppress 33 new blazes as stiff winds in the northeast pushed fires into new territory. There was still no significant rain in sight, and lands parched by warm weather remain at risk of igniting.

At the North Complex Fire, which has burned more than 270,000 acres northeast of Sacramento, winds whipped the flames across a clearing that had been plowed by bulldozers.

Capt. Michael McIndoe and his crew were trying to stamp out any embers crossing a road. “It’s really challenging to stop it,” said Captain McIndoe, who was sent north by the Los Angeles Fire Department to join the fight.

Crews back in Los Angeles were working on Tuesday to beat back one wildfire that approached to within 500 feet of the famed Mt. Wilson Observatory, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

West Coast residents from San Francisco to Seattle and beyond have for days suffered from the smoke, which has sent air-quality readings soaring to hazardous levels, closed some schools and led officials to shut parks and beaches while pleading for people to stay indoors. In Seattle, Harborview Medical Center reported seeing a rise in the number of people seeking help for breathing issues — many of them people with underlying conditions such as asthma or lung disease.

“The air outside right now is at historically polluted levels,” Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said.

Air that was considered unhealthy to breathe was recorded as far away as Montana and up into Canada, though the high-level haze extended much further. Propelled by the jet stream and a high-pressure system over the Great Lakes, the smoke began arriving at higher altitudes across much of the continent.By midday on Tuesday over Washington, D.C., the sun and the sky had blurred together into one diffused and omnipresent bright light.