Air quality in the Boise area was at unhealthy levels Thursday as fires in Central Idaho and a new fire southeast of Boise continued to burn.
The Boise, Meridian and Nampa areas were showing levels in the red category, which means all people may experience health effects and members of sensitive groups may have more serious impacts, said Michael Toole, the regional airshed coordinator at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.
Toole said the Treasure Valley was getting a lot of drainage smoke from fires in the state. It’s also still cool in the morning and there’s an inversion in place, so smoke lingers close to the ground, he said.
The Plex Fire, which started Wednesday evening southeast of Boise, grew to 350 acres by 8 a.m. and was impacting air quality in that area. Unofficial monitors in the area were showing levels in the red and even the purple zones, Toole said, but that would not be surprising given the location of the fire and the current weather conditions.
“Hopefully, as the inversion lifts later this afternoon, temperatures warm up, that smoke will lift more and allow for levels to come down,” he said. “It’s just an unfortunate location for that fire, and the time of day is not good either, so there’s probably going to be a lot more smoke in that Southeast Boise area.”
If that fire continues to burn and produces smoke later Thursday afternoon, that could have more of an area-wide affect, Toole said.
“We’ll just have to kind of wait and see what smoke behavior we get from that fire,” he said.
Other fires in Idaho continued to affect the Boise area, including the Wapiti Fire, which has burned over 100,000 acres in Custer County, and the Nellie Fire in the Middle Fork Complex.
“They’re producing a lot of smoke, and that smoke is just kind of wrapping right back down through the Treasure Valley,” Toole said. “That’s the smoke that we’ve been expecting and that we’re seeing a lot of impact from.”
Models show there could be some improvements in air quality later in the day, Toole said, but the Plex Fire is a new variable.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued an air quality advisory Thursday morning for 23 counties, including Ada and Canyon. All outdoor burning is banned.
Wildfire smoke can be “particularly harmful for sensitive groups,” such as people with cardiovascular conditions, pregnant people and children, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The department recommends monitoring air quality and reducing exposure to smoke.
