Three wildfires surround Dr. Karen Jakpor’s Southern California home and she doesn’t know where to go.
Even though fire lines are miles away , smoke billows down the mountains into the hills and valleys of the Inland Empire, a mega-region east of Los Angeles. Jakpor, 62, has asthma. Toxic wildfire smoke severely cuts her breathing. Asthma flares, already debilitating with regular pollution in the heavily congested region, are worsening with the Line, Airport and Bridge fires that triangulate on Riverside, where Jakpor lives.
Jakpor is looking for a respite outside of the area as the blazes continue to burn with no control. And so are scores of others. Southern California has notoriously polluted air . Now, tens of millions of people are under advisories for the three fires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres and counting.
Wildfire smoke — burning trees and shrubs but also homes and other manmade materials — contains toxic chemicals harmful to human health immediately and over longer periods.