Onlookers watch as a wildfire burns Wednesday near Lake Elsinore, Calif. Evacuations have been ordered for several small mountain communities near where a forest fire continues to grow in Southern California.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A dull haze and the faint smell of smoke from distant blazes have blanketed many California cities for two weeks, forcing summer campers to stay inside, obscuring normally bright skylines and leaving cars covered with ash.
Kaela Baylis of Sacramento used to take her nearly 2-year-old son outside twice a day, but only has gone in the morning the last 10 days.
Two major wildfires – one called the Mendocino Complex Fire that is the largest in California history – are burning more than 100 miles north of Sacramento and another huge fire near Yosemite National Park is a little farther to the southeast.
Firefighters made significant progress against the Mendocino Complex for the first time Wednesday but said the blazes likely will persist through September.
The fires have combined to produce unhealthy air that has drifted as far east as Salt Lake City, 450 miles away.
The skies there were so murky that earlier this week residents couldn’t even see the nearby mountain range that hovers over the valley. Utah air quality officials warned children and seniors to limit time outside.
Thursday marked the Sacramento region’s 14th straight “Spare the Air” day, when people are encouraged not to drive and add further pollutants to the air – the longest stretch since at least 2001.
John and Rosalie Gonzales strolled through a Sacramento park Wednesday with their toddler granddaughter, whom they were visiting. For the last few days at their home in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Albany, they have awakened to ash on their cars from the Mendocino Complex Fire.