ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Even in a state that's familiar with wildfires, the smoke this summer has been worse than usual in Idaho. For more than two months now, Boise and other parts of the state have been choking under ashy gray skies. Boise State Public Radio's James Dawson reports.
JAMES DAWSON, BYLINE: The Wapiti Fire near Stanley, Idaho, is currently the biggest wildfire in the continental U.S. It and another nearby blaze have burned about 260 square miles, bigger than the area of Chicago.
KATI CHACHERE: We actually experienced some of the worst smoke that Idaho has seen in the past 25 years.
DAWSON: Kati Chachere is an air resource adviser for the team managing the Wapiti Fire. She says part of that smoke came from even more massive fires in central Oregon burning earlier in the summer, but now it's locally grown, organic smoke from the fires just a few miles away making everyone cough. The nearby Sawtooth Range juts up more than 10,000 feet, funneling the smoke into the valleys where most people live.
CHACHERE: Because the atmosphere can't mix to the height of the mountains surrounding these communities, that's why the smoke has been so stuck.
DAWSON: Mike Toole is with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in Boise, Idaho's largest city and home to more than 800,000 people in the metro area. Boise is a few hours' drive from the Wapiti Fire, but its smoke still filters south into the city. Toole says it's common for Boise to have long stretches of stagnant wildfire smoke in the summer, but this year it's stuck around and been more highly concentrated than usual.
MIKE TOOLE: Yeah, so it's been kind of a roller coaster. It's been a little rough.
DAWSON: Federal tracking data shows 28 wildfires have burned in Idaho, though more are unlisted. Public schools, which started up a couple weeks ago, have had to limit sports practices, reschedule games and even cancel them altogether. Some people are walking or biking around Boise wearing N95 masks. Toole says it's like the movie "Groundhog Day," endlessly waking up to the same smoke.
TOOLE: It just kind of feels like, you know, that fatigue is kind of gnawing at people. There's been no real break to kind of catch your breath.
DAWSON: He and Chachere expect unhealthy conditions to continue for the foreseeable future. Stanley, population 116, is a tourist area that does most of its business in the summer. People there are trying to power through the smoke.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIKE GEARS SHIFTING)
DAWSON: Trei Cooke is checking the shifting on a customer's bike at his shop, Balance Bike Works, as his dog Lil lays in the sun a few feet away.
TREI COOKE: The latter part of June and the first part of July, we were hopping. It was great. There was a lot of people renting bikes.
DAWSON: That was before a fire prompted evacuations and drove away tourists in mid-July. While crews contained that fire, lightning sparked the Wapiti Fire a few miles away. Cooke has had to evacuate two different homes.
COOKE: I didn't get too comfortable in the new place. I mean, let's put it that way. It's - you know, I've gotten pretty good at this.
DAWSON: At times, Stanley is almost fully clear with a blue sky overhead. But more often, smoke pours in like a miasma, casting an eerie orange light that looks like a scene from a horror movie and reaching very unhealthy or even hazardous levels. In the bike shop, Don Barowsky says he's been coming to the area every summer for 15 years, but he's among the few tourists still braving the threat of smoke.
DON BAROWSKY: We want to see these places stay open and survive, and if we can do whatever little part in these tough times, we're going to do it.
DAWSON: Many Stanley residents are able to return home after local authorities lifted evacuation orders last week, but the smoke is likely to stick around. The Wapiti Fire isn't expected to burn out until the snow flies, hopefully in October. For NPR News, I'm James Dawson in Boise.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLYING LOTUS' "FF4") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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