Everyone in the Central Okanagan is struggling with hazardous air quality from fire smoke — from the firefighters on the front lines to those experiencing homelessness.
“Our biggest challenge in the last 24 hours has been air quality. It is choking," said West Kelowna fire chief Jason Brolund on Monday.
"We all know that because we came here today and spent a short period of time in it. But the firefighters are outside working in it relentlessly."
"[Firefighters] are breathing it for 12, 14, 16 hours at a time, so it is a real challenge. Someone told me today that our air quality today is the worst in the world."
Under these conditions, everyone should reduce or reschedule strenuous activities outdoors. Children, the elderly, or at risk should avoid outdoor physical activity all together.
With hundreds living on the street, and thousands more recently evacuated from their homes, the Kelowna Gospel Mission and other outreach groups in the Okanagan have stepped up to help those who can't just go indoors.
Despite a number of staff being evacuated, Kelowna Gospel Mission has boots on the ground, providing people experiencing homelessness with some protection from the smoke.
“Every day we’re providing food, basic things like clothing, water, coffee, harm reduction supplies, and we’ve added to that with masks in the past few days. It’s been really great,” said Carmen Rempel, the executive director of Kelowna Gospel Mission.
“We had some still in storage from the pandemic, and also just this morning we heard from the health authority working with the City of Kelowna that we’ve actually made N95 masks available to all the different outreach groups, so we’re making sure that people who are outside and can’t escape this smoke right now are equipped with these masks. We’re really concerned about the life effects it might have on people with prolonged exposure to this smoke.”
Rempel and her team spend time at Kelowna's outdoor shelter on a daily basis.
Handing out lozenges and other remedies for the smoke, she tells Castanet that people living outside are looking for a place to escape the poor air quality.
Rempel said the unhoused go to the H2O, Parkinson Rec Centre and the library as public spaces to get refuge from the smoke.
“It’s oppressive to be outside without any relief," said Rempel.
"Everybody that I’ve talked to is trying to keep calm and carry on, but it’s simply uncomfortable. It’s more uncomfortable. People already have so many things that they’re dealing with and the smoke is on top of them. Many people struggle with different health struggles to begin with, and so they’re highly vulnerable and the smoke just makes it worse.”
