Smoke rolled onto the CWU campus alongside this year’s incoming student class, dropping the air quality on campus to new lows. 

CWU Public Safety recently notified campus residents that “Recent AQI (Air Quality Index) readings in our area have exceeded 51, which is considered moderately unhealthy for sensitive groups (people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses).” They continued to state that if the AQI exceeds 301, all on campus events would be canceled.

These wildfires have not only affected Ellensburg, however, but many surrounding cities as well, including Cle Elum which is the closest area to the Labor Mountain Fire. The smoke has clouded skies around Central Washington and has continued to reduce air quality in Washington over the course of this past month. 

The Labor Mountain fire is one of the fires caused by lightning strikes last month. It has grown to over 40,000 acres across Eastern Washington, at the time of this article’s publishing, reaching closer to Wenatchee as well as keeping a close distance to Cle Elum. Though the firefighters have been working hard to keep the fire from spreading further, the fire is maintaining its burn with only 7% containment. And while there are other fires that continue to burn in the state, The Labor Mountain fire is one of the biggest fires in Washington as of right now.

Kyle Martin, Assistant Manager of Cafes and Markets at CWU, has lived in the Teanaway Valley just outside of Cle Elum for over a year and has seen more from the fires than most in Ellensburg. Martin said that the fire has caused “smoke in the air, bad air quality, also it affected our view … often days it was hazy and foggy and so you couldn’t see across the valley to the hillsides on the other side.” Martin first saw the smoke from the fire on Labor Day and has continuously seen the smoke come in and out of the valley since then.

Along with the smoke, fires have also affected travel for many people as well. The fire has jumped across highway 97 causing the highway to be partially closed, affecting travel for many including Kyle Martin. Martin talked about his plans to travel, stating “the pass has been closed for at least a week and a half now … that’s concerning. We often use the pass to go over to Leavenworth.” As for Martin, he has seen the effects these fires are causing first hand. “The devastation for people who are involved is disheartening,” Martin said. 

Firefighting teams are actively working to extinguish and contain the fires across Washington, and containment updates can be found at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources official website and social media channels.