PURRS NEEDED CALIFORNIA (fires and bad air) long article

I was checking my Yahoo e-mail, saw this story, and HAD to put it
here..share isn't the right word.

PUUUUURS, for the victims of all this devastation, prayers too.

Kyla

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

FRESNO, Calif. - California's raging wildfires have created a smoky haze so
stifling that some doctors in the state's landlocked farm country say their
waiting rooms have been crowding with patients struggling to breathe amid
the soot-laden air. Even without the blazes, which have scorched more than
660 square miles statewide, the farming towns and subdivisions dotting the
long, flat San Joaquin Valley are typically shrouded in a layer of smog
during the summer.

But airborne ash from the hundreds of lightning-sparked fires caused such a
spike in air pollution over the weekend that meteorologist Shawn Ferreria
said it took his breath away.

"I went and bought a mask because my lungs were not happy with me," said
Ferreria, a senior air quality specialist for the San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District. "What we are experiencing is out of historical
norms. I thought if I'm going to continue riding my bike to work, I better
take an extra measure."

Hundreds of firefighters were working overtime Tuesday to beat back blazes
burning from the western edge of the Sierra Nevada to coastal mountains near
Big Sur, where authorities enforced new, mandatory evacuations along a
roughly 15-mile stretch of Highway 1.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered 200 National Guard troops to report for
fire training Tuesday to relieve weary crews early next week. That marks the
first time the guard has been asked to send soldiers to join ground-based
fire fights since 1977, a guard spokesman said.

Officials had hoped a fog bank along the Northern California coast would
help with fire suppression, but the moisture did not extend inland, said
Brian Tentinger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Monterey.

Even as crews made headway against some of the worst blazes, air district
officials grew concerned that wind patterns would send more smoke billowing
into the valley, which is bordered on three sides by mountains.

Once the tiny particles of soot - which are blamed for triggering asthma and
other respiratory problems - are carried inland, they're sealed in under a
layer of warm air created by hot summer temperatures.

"Our waiting rooms are full of people with sore throats, itchy eyes and
sniffles," said Kevin Hamilton, a respiratory therapist with Sequoia
Community Health Center in Fresno. "It's certainly driving the clinic's
appointments up."

Community Regional Medical Center, the area's only trauma center, showed no
increase in respiratory cases. Some health professionals suggested that
could be because asthma patients stayed inside to avoid exposure.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, officials said air quality had finally
returned to healthy levels after several days of health warnings.

In the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest, about 200 people
were ordered to evacuate Tuesday, and evacuation orders remained in place
for occupants of at least 75 homes who were forced to leave the region last
week.

Endangered condors also sought to avoid the thick smoke by hunkering in
cliffs along the Pacific Ocean. A 2-month-old baby condor died when fire
swept through the gorge where it was nesting in a 1,000-year-old redwood,
scientists said.

At Tassajara Zen Mountain Training Center monastery in nearby Carmel Valley,
students and volunteers stretched sprinklers atop buildings in case embers
started falling.

"Air quality is the wrong word. There is no quality," said Chris Slymon, who
monitors the monastery's closest phone from a crossroads at Jamesburg 10
miles away.

In the Sequoia National Forest east of Bakersfield, crews from as far away
as Kansas struggled to contain the 8,200-acre Piute Fire. Powerful gusts and
choking smoke traveling up the steep canyons hampered their progress, and
residents of neighboring towns were ordered to evacuate.

The Kiwanis Club of Mariposa, about 70 miles northwest of Fresno, canceled
the town's annual fireworks show at the county fairgrounds because
firefighters were using it as a staging area to contain a blaze that has
burned through more than 2,700 acres.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be safe my friends

Love

Kyla

"Kylatte =^. .^=`" wrote in message
. ..
I was checking my Yahoo e-mail, saw this story, and HAD to put it
here..share isn't the right word.

PUUUUURS, for the victims of all this devastation, prayers too.

Kyla

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

FRESNO, Calif. - California's raging wildfires have created a smoky haze
so stifling that some doctors in the state's landlocked farm country say
their waiting rooms have been crowding with patients struggling to breathe
amid the soot-laden air. Even without the blazes, which have scorched more
than 660 square miles statewide, the farming towns and subdivisions
dotting the long, flat San Joaquin Valley are typically shrouded in a
layer of smog during the summer.

But airborne ash from the hundreds of lightning-sparked fires caused such
a spike in air pollution over the weekend that meteorologist Shawn
Ferreria said it took his breath away.

"I went and bought a mask because my lungs were not happy with me," said
Ferreria, a senior air quality specialist for the San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District. "What we are experiencing is out of historical
norms. I thought if I'm going to continue riding my bike to work, I better
take an extra measure."

Hundreds of firefighters were working overtime Tuesday to beat back blazes
burning from the western edge of the Sierra Nevada to coastal mountains
near Big Sur, where authorities enforced new, mandatory evacuations along
a roughly 15-mile stretch of Highway 1.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered 200 National Guard troops to report for
fire training Tuesday to relieve weary crews early next week. That marks
the first time the guard has been asked to send soldiers to join
ground-based fire fights since 1977, a guard spokesman said.

Officials had hoped a fog bank along the Northern California coast would
help with fire suppression, but the moisture did not extend inland, said
Brian Tentinger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Monterey.

Even as crews made headway against some of the worst blazes, air district
officials grew concerned that wind patterns would send more smoke
billowing into the valley, which is bordered on three sides by mountains.

Once the tiny particles of soot - which are blamed for triggering asthma
and other respiratory problems - are carried inland, they're sealed in
under a layer of warm air created by hot summer temperatures.

"Our waiting rooms are full of people with sore throats, itchy eyes and
sniffles," said Kevin Hamilton, a respiratory therapist with Sequoia
Community Health Center in Fresno. "It's certainly driving the clinic's
appointments up."

Community Regional Medical Center, the area's only trauma center, showed
no increase in respiratory cases. Some health professionals suggested that
could be because asthma patients stayed inside to avoid exposure.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, officials said air quality had finally
returned to healthy levels after several days of health warnings.

In the Big Sur region of the Los Padres National Forest, about 200 people
were ordered to evacuate Tuesday, and evacuation orders remained in place
for occupants of at least 75 homes who were forced to leave the region
last week.

Endangered condors also sought to avoid the thick smoke by hunkering in
cliffs along the Pacific Ocean. A 2-month-old baby condor died when fire
swept through the gorge where it was nesting in a 1,000-year-old redwood,
scientists said.

At Tassajara Zen Mountain Training Center monastery in nearby Carmel
Valley, students and volunteers stretched sprinklers atop buildings in
case embers started falling.

"Air quality is the wrong word. There is no quality," said Chris Slymon,
who monitors the monastery's closest phone from a crossroads at Jamesburg
10 miles away.

In the Sequoia National Forest east of Bakersfield, crews from as far away
as Kansas struggled to contain the 8,200-acre Piute Fire. Powerful gusts
and choking smoke traveling up the steep canyons hampered their progress,
and residents of neighboring towns were ordered to evacuate.

The Kiwanis Club of Mariposa, about 70 miles northwest of Fresno, canceled
the town's annual fireworks show at the county fairgrounds because
firefighters were using it as a staging area to contain a blaze that has
burned through more than 2,700 acres.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be safe my friends

Love

Kyla



Purrs for all the people and beasts and birds out there.


--
Theresa, Stinky and Dante
drtmuirATearthlink.net

Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Kylatte =^. .^=` wrote:
I was checking my Yahoo e-mail, saw this story, and HAD to put it
here..share isn't the right word.

PUUUUURS, for the victims of all this devastation, prayers too.

Kyla

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

FRESNO, Calif. - California's raging wildfires have created a smoky haze so
stifling that some doctors in the state's landlocked farm country say their
waiting rooms have been crowding with patients struggling to breathe amid
the soot-laden air. snip


Lots and lots of purrs,
Polonca and Soncek