Advertisement
Greenspace

Air quality at hazardous levels in foothill cities

By Corina Knoll
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The Angeles National Forest fire has reduced air quality to hazardous levels in foothill communities in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, officials say.

The cities of Altadena, La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta are directly affected by the smoke, as are the Los Angeles communities of Tujunga and Sunland.

Advertisement

The area Sunday recorded an air Quality index of 398. Anything above 100 is considered unhealthful, officials said.

‘It’s been a long time since we’ve recorded an [index] of this high a level,’ said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Dense smoke tends to settle into valleys when there is no wind. Some of the smoke was expected to be swept into the mountains by ocean breezes this morning, Atwood said.

‘It’s really time for people with heart and lung disease -- bronchitis, asthma, emphysema -- to think about leaving to a less smoky area,’ Atwood said.

-- Corina Knoll

Greenspace
Corina Knoll

Corina Knoll is a former reporter for the Metro section of the Los Angeles Times. She was on the team that investigated corruption in Bell — which led to the paper’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service — and went on to cover the trials of the city’s former officials. She later contributed to the paper’s coverage of the San Bernardino terror attack that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. As a regional reporter, she wrote features about the San Gabriel Valley and the Westside. During her courts beat, she covered high-profile criminal cases and civil disputes, including the Jackson family vs AEG and Bryan Stow vs LA Dodgers. She and two colleagues investigated sheriff’s deputies whose histories of misconduct landed them on the department’s top-secret Brady list. She left The Times in January 2019. Raised in the Midwest, she is a graduate of Macalester College.

Advertisement