Smoke suffocates Valley, cancels Sunfair Parade

Smoke suffocates Valley, cancels Sunfair Parade

By David Lester ?and ROSS COURTNEY
Yakima Herald-Republic

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Smoky air from wildfires to the north and west pervaded the Yakima Valley on Friday, forcing the cancellation of the Sunfair Parade in Yakima, the Valley?s biggest community parade of the season.

Organizers said air-quality officials advised that the poor air conditions would continue today, so they decided the parade through downtown Yakima could not go on.

"This was not an easy decision," said Joe Mann, president of the Sunfair Festival Association. "I feel we have an obligation to put on a quality event. The question is, would we have one?"

Mann said he made the decision after consulting with the festival board and past Sunfair presidents. He also consulted the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency about the weekend outlook.

"I weighed a lot of people?s opinions. My board members voiced theirs," Mann said. "I?m pretty sure that everyone is in unison and all supportive of it. We worked on this for 12 months. To work on it that long and to have to cancel it, that hurts."

Hasan Tahat, the air agency?s engineering and planning division supervisor, said air quality in the region will continue to be poor for several days.

"Based on the forecast for the next three days, I don?t see any improvement," Tahat said.

The Yakima Sunfair Parade has been conducted in Yakima since 1961, celebrating its 50th anniversary last year. Mann does not think the parade can be rescheduled. There were approximately 120 entries for the parade.

The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert Friday. The air agency will maintain a stage 2 burn ban through noon Monday, meaning all outdoor burning is prohibited.

The deterioration in air quality is unprecedented to Gordon Kelly, the longtime Valley environmental health director for the Yakima Health District.

"I?ve worked in Central Washington for 40 years," Kelly said. "And from a smoke perspective, this is probably the worst I?ve seen."

The Yakima Valley, by definition, is a trap for air pollution, he said.

"We are all living in a bowl. Valleys are bowls, and stagnant, heavier air tends to settle to the bottom."

At least five local football games were postponed after the Clean Air Agency warned that current air quality is "unhealthy" for the general population.

That was a more serious assessment by the agency. Previously, it said the air was unhealthy only for sensitive groups, such as children, the elderly, people with heart and lung conditions and pregnant women.

Games postponed were Moses Lake at Davis in Yakima, Othello at West Valley, Selah at East Valley, Naches Valley at Granger and La Salle at Highland. Another game, Goldendale at Cle Elum, was rescheduled to be played today at Mount Si.

GridKids games also were postponed, as well as Yakima Youth Soccer games and many high school sporting events scheduled for today.

Clean Air Agency officials said the tiny particles in the smoke can lodge in the eyes and lungs, aggravating health problems and causing burning eyes, runny noses and other heart and lung diseases.

"Use common sense. If it looks and smells smoky outside, it?s probably not a good time to go for a jog, mow the lawn or allow children to play outdoors," the agency said in a news release.

Air conditioning units should be turned to "recycle" so they don?t draw in outside air. Dust masks used for home-improvement jobs are not adequate. Instead, N-95 or P-100 masks can provide limited protection from the small particulate matter.

The Yakima Fire Complex blazes that are the source of at least some of the smoke were 60 percent contained Friday, up from ?40 percent Thursday morning, fire officials said.

There are about 75 fires within that complex in Yakima and Kittitas counties, and about 700 people are fighting the blazes.

The larger fires are to the north, in Kittitas and Chelan counties.

Source: http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2012/09/21/smoke-suffocates-valley-cancels-sunfair-parade

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