Seattle Opening Smoke Shelters To Protect Residents Against Increasingly Routine Forest Fires
Ahead of a Western wildfire season expected to be again worse than average, officials in Seattle announced yesterday that five city buildings would be outfitted to serve as havens where residents can go to breathe clean air.
The move is in response to several years marked by thick smoke hanging over the city from summer wildfires, which officials and scientists have unequivocally connected to the slow-motion effects of climate change.
Seattle officials demonstrated the technology at one of the havens — a community center in the city's Rainier Beach neighborhood — pointing out air sensors mounted on the wall and describing how the building's existing ventilation system had been retrofitted with special filters to keep it positively pressurized with clean air.
Along with the Rainier Beach facility, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said, at least two of the facilities could potentially be scaled up to shelter the city's homeless population if air quality sinks far enough during the summer to endanger those unable to retreat indoors. "We have to prepare as if this will be the new normal," Durkan said, adding that 2018 saw 24 days with hazardous air quality levels due to wildfire smoke, including several reaching extreme levels.
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https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2019/06/20/stories/1060637381
