As parts of Southern California burns and smoke fills the air, parents’ calls to cancel school are growing.
“My daughter, who has asthma, recently voiced experiencing chest pain due to the poor air quality,” wrote Lily Ponce in one of several online petitions. “Furthermore, I also have younger kids, and sending them out in these conditions makes me feel uncomfortable and worried.”
Ponce, whose petition says she lives in Colton, doesn’t specify one particular district she’s calling upon to close, but cites the need to “put pressure on our local school boards and officials.”
“Fires have become more frequent and raging,” she wrote. “It should alarm every community about the danger we’re putting our families in.”
Seven online petitions are demanding that the San Bernardino City Unified School District, Chaffey Joint Unified High School District and Colton Joint Unified School District shut down classes amid the rampant wildfires and resulting poor air quality. The petitions, primarily composed by parents, have gained nearly 19,000 signatures.
Spokespersons for San Bernardino and Colton schools could not be reached Tuesday. No school closures are scheduled for Chaffey Joint Union, spokesperson Steve Lambert said. The district will monitor the situation with help from county and fire officials and make decisions based on those conversations, he added.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the San Bernardino City Unified School District announced an emergency school board meeting about the Line fire for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, but it was not clear if school closures would be discussed.
Some campuses closest to the fires have closed, but others have not.
For example, the Lake Elsinore School District shut schools Tuesday, Sept. 10, as the fast-paced Airport fire in Orange County charred at least 9,000 acres in its push toward neighboring Riverside County.
On Tuesday morning, a yellow haze could be seen near the Outlets at Lake Elsinore. Smoke and large, black clouds filled the sky. White ash particles wafted downward, landing on cars in the mall’s parking lot. Some shoppers donned N95 masks. Employees and customers could be seen stepping out of their vehicles and gazing up at the sky, which was covered in yellow-gray clouds.
Honorah Lavelle, a 52-year-old caregiver and Lake Elsinore resident, was at the outlets doing birthday shopping for her daughter. Lavelle wiped away white specks of ash from her eyelashes as she spoke.
“Driving through the smoke this morning, I could hardly see and my car was covered in ash,” she said. “It looked crazy.”
Mariana Hernandez, a 22-year-old Lake Elsinore resident who works at Sunglass Hut in the outlets, also was affected.
“I have to admit that I have been coughing a little bit when driving,” she said. “I don’t usually cough. It is heavy out there this morning. You could smell the smoke.”
Johana Meneses, a security guard at a Summerly Pool, a Lake Elsinore community pool, peeked out a window Tuesday rather than standing guard outside. The pool was closed because of the approaching fire.
“Oh my gosh, there was so much ash, my eyes were burning yesterday,” Meneses said. “On my way to work and then just being here at work I’m seeing the debris and breathing the debris so that’s why I’m trying to keep a watch from inside and look through the windows.”
Several schools in Riverside County have closed, including the entire Lake Elsinore district. The Corona-Norco Unified School District closed three elementary schools Tuesday — Wilson, Temescal Valley and Todd, the district posted on Facebook.
The Line fire burning in San Bernardino County caused some districts to call off classes for Monday, Sept. 9, including the Redlands and Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint unified school districts.
The Bridge fire raging in the Angeles National Forest caused evacuation orders for residents of Baldy Village.
Still, many campuses remain open on “inclement weather protocols” — in which outdoor activities are curtailed — but some parents and students are questioning if that is enough.
The Air Quality Index put out by the South Coast Air Quality Management District was expected to reach very unhealthy levels Monday in the central and eastern San Bernardino Valley, which includes Fontana, San Bernardino, Rialto, Redlands, Highland and Yucaipa, according to the air quality district.
On Tuesday, the index was expected to reach 108 in metropolitan Riverside County, range from 97-124 across the San Bernardino Valley and 152 in the east San Bernardino Mountains.
South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Air Quality Index starts at zero and goes past 300. The index ranked zero to 50 as “good” air quality, 51 to 100 as “moderate,” 101 to 150 as “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” 151 to 200 as “unhealthy,” 201 to 300 as “very unhealthy” and greater than 300 to be “hazardous.”
The index is the most important thing to gauge what is healthy and not healthy, said Roopa Viraraghavan, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at UC Riverside Health, said in a Tuesday phone interview.
“Anything above 200 is very unhealthy, so most health experts would recommend closure,” Viraraghavan added. “I think above 200 is an absolute.”
The number is lower for sensitive groups, such as students with asthma, allergies and other respiratory-type conditions, she said. For them, the index level would be about 100-150, Viraraghavan said.
For schools that remain open, canceling outdoor activities may help, but it may not be enough without proper indoor air-quality measures such as filtering indoor air, reducing physical activity indoors, closing windows, sealing off outdoor air and use high-efficiency particulate air filters, she added.
Josephine Allas, a 63-year-old Lake Elsinore resident, complained of the conditions Tuesday while eating lunch outside Main Street Kitchen & Tap restaurant with her young granddaughter – who donned a blue mask.
“I have a special-needs brother at home who has really bad asthma and allergies so I’ve had to keep him indoors the past four days,” Allas said. “The air quality has been horrible for my granddaughter, allergies and asthma kind of run in our family. She’s been sneezing more than usual.”
Besides the Redlands and Yucaipa school district, all schools in Bear Valley Unified School District will remain closed through Friday, Sept. 13, the district announced on its website midday Tuesday. Rim of the World Unified, which has had campuses closed since Monday, will also keep schools closed through the week, “or until further notice,” district officials posted on Facebook Monday. San Bernardino City Unified has closed two schools — Bonnie Oehl Elementary School and Serrano Middle School — until further notice.
Other districts near the fire footprint, including the Fontana Unified School District, remain open and continue to monitor conditions, saying they will update as information becomes available.
The sentiment is not limited to lower education.
“School is still in session and has been difficult for me to commute in between classes due to the poor air quality and the amount of ash in the air,” Cal State San Bernardino student Joseph Medina wrote in an email on Tuesday. “Just being outside for 5-10 minutes makes my chest hurt and I get a headache almost immediately.”
Students are being asked to choose between their grades and health, Medina added.
The university is “working closely with local emergency services to stay informed and ensure the well-being of the campus community,” Cal State San Bernardino spokesperson Alan Llavore wrote in an email.
The university is not in an area affected by evacuation warnings or orders issued by Cal Fire, so its remains open with some changes, he added.
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For example, air handling systems have been modified to limit outdoor air, outdoor classes, athletic practices and outdoor activities have been moved indoors or rescheduled, Llavore wrote.
“University officials also continue to monitor the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Air Quality Index,” he said.
Meanwhile, health officials are urging all to take care when outdoors.
“Residents, especially those with chronic health conditions, need to be aware of the risks of breathing unhealthy air and take steps to keep safe,” Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Geoffrey Leung said in a news release.
People at heightened risk include pregnant women, children, older adults, first responders and those with chronic health conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease, the release states.
