Mamdani urges residents to limit time outdoors
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city had made KN95 masks available at hundreds of locations, including libraries, police stations and firehouses. “Every New Yorker should take precautions. Limit your time outdoors, especially strenuous activity,” Mamdani said.
The National Weather Service issued an air-quality alert as pollution levels were elevated. The smoky air was compounded by soaring temperatures, with the heat in the city reaching above 90°F. In other parts of the United States, a “heat dome” helped trap the stifling smoky air, and in Detroit, closer to the burning Canadian forests, the city registered the worst air quality in the world.
The city’s office of emergency management encouraged New Yorkers to avoid being outside for more than an hour. “Listen to your body,” the department posted on its social media account. “If you have watery eyes, a scratchy throat, or difficulty breathing, reduce physical activity and go indoors.”
Residents reported a range of symptoms. John, a 31-year-old Queens resident with asthma who works security at Times Square, said he could taste the smoke. “You can taste the burnt paper in the air,” he said. John, who only wanted his first name used, said his employer encouraged staff to avoid overexertion and take breaks, “but at the end of the day, we still got to be outside.”
Rachel Smalter Hall, an editor at a New York book publisher, said she noticed her eyes stinging when she went outside. Smalter Hall, who has asthma, said she and her therapist decided to meet remotely rather than in person because of the air. “The color of the sky changing due to pollution is becoming a more and more common thing, and it just makes me really concerned for the future of air quality, for the future of their health, for the future of the health of our planet,” she said.
Jackie Bell, a healthcare worker in Brooklyn on maternity leave, chose to keep her three-year-old son home from camp rather than walk 30 minutes each way through the smog with her two-month-old daughter. “I’m just very grateful. I feel very privileged knowing that some people, despite the situation, might have to go outside,” Bell said.
Aaron Freedman, a graduate student studying American history, said the smoke reminded him of California wildfires. He recalled a similar incident in June 2023, when another Canadian wildfire caused New York’s air to become toxic and its sky to turn orange. “Growing up, this never happened. So yeah, climate change, it sucks,” Freedman said.