For months now, my local Facebook community page has had people posting daily, asking where the fire is burning that is making the air so hazy. There is always some good soul who takes the time to reply with a link or a screenshot informing everyone about the nearest wildfire. Sometimes the smoke is coming from far away, too.

We can all learn how to track wildfires without asking questions on social media, and we should. The sooner residents know about fires coming their way, the quicker they can evacuate, if needed. According to Oregon Live, on a September morning in Marion County, Oregon, the sheriff’s office let everyone know there were no plans for an evacuation inside the city of Detroit. But “later that night, there was no warning,” Oregon Live reported. Residents frantically left their homes as the fire enveloped their city.

If you live near an area that could potentially experience a wildfire evacuation, it’s not a bad idea to stay up to date on fires that pop up in your area. 

First of all, be aware of the terminology. A Red Flag Warning urges everyone to be careful with open flames.

The National Weather Service and land management agencies will issue such a warning when wildfire conditions may occur soon.

A Fire Weather Watch means weather conditions like wind and humidity have created an environment ripe for wildfires.

Extreme Fire Behavior alerts means there is a wildfire burning, and it is likely to become unpredictable. The NWS only issues these alerts if the fire is spreading quickly, has prolific crowning (spreading from treetop to treetop) or contains fire whirls or a strong convection column (a rising column of gases, smoke, ash and other debris). 

Now, be sure to stay informed.

The Firesource — Live Wildfires app for iOS has a live feed of fire information verified by InciWeb, the national information system for wildfires. An interesting feature is the crowdsource reporting of fires in the app. To ensure accuracy, users who want to report a fire are required to open their camera app to take a real-time photo of the incident. The app won’t allow a photo pulled from a phone’s camera roll. Then other users can rate those fires, choosing to confirm them as “active,” “contained” or “spam.” The app encourages users to submit all types of fires, not only forest fires.

For Android users, a good source of information is good old Google. It launched a new wildfire boundary map last month that shows exactly where the flames are burning. When users use Search or Maps to look up a specific wildfire by name or by more general terms, like “Oregon fires,” they’ll see the approximate boundary of the fire, the name, location and other helpful resources. Google wrote in a blog post that while using Maps, it will know if you’re nearing a wildfire and can send you an alert. 

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Most importantly, make sure you are allowing government alerts on your phone. For iPhones, go to Settings>Notifications and scroll down to the bottom. You’ll see the options to toggle on AMBER Alerts, Emergency Alerts and Public Safety Alerts. Android users go to Settings>Apps & notifications>Advanced>Wireless emergency alerts. There you’ll can manage emergency messages, view past alerts and control sound and vibration.

Sometimes it is unhealthy for your lungs to breathe in the hazy air outside. It’s worth your time to check with the experts. I stand by my 2018 recommendation of Plume Labs: Air Quality app. It not only gives air quality levels, but also gets specific on whether it’s OK to go for a run or take your baby outside. Users can decide whether they want notifications from the app only when it matters, morning or evening reports or none at all.

You may think you’ll be fine outside since you have all these cute face masks lying around because of COVID-19. Think again. The Environmental Protection Agency says those won’t protect you from smoke or ash. Only N95 or P100 masks will have any effect on filtering out those particles.

With millions of acres burned in the western U.S. and the smoke reaching all the way to Europe, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s satellites, it’s time we all become better informed and better prepared.

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