As a thick haze of wildfire smoke settled in Thursday during an intense heat wave in Aurora, officials urged residents to stay inside, advocates found creative ways to help unhoused people and the public swimming pools people used to cool off earlier in the week had to close due to poor air quality.
Air quality levels dropped to “very unhealthy” Thursday in Kane County and other surrounding counties as a thick plume of surface smoke blanketed the Great Lakes and the northeastern U.S. from wildfires in Canada and Minnesota, according to a Chicago National Weather Service air quality alert.
The air quality alert means residents should stay inside and especially avoid physical activity outside, said Chicago National Weather Service meteorologist Zachary Yack. He also advised residents to make sure they have a clean air filter in their air conditioning system and work to keep outside smoky air from getting inside.
Aurora interim fire chief Kevin Nickel and Aurora Emergency Management Coordinator Theodore Van De Sampel encouraged residents to stay aware of current air quality conditions and take appropriate precautions, particularly when spending extended periods outdoors. Van De Sampel also encouraged residents to drive a little slower due to visibility issues.
“Especially if you have respiratory problems like asthma or COPD, we would recommend stay as away from it as possible,” Van De Sampel said of the smoky outdoor air.
Poor air quality conditions were set to persist through Friday, even though conditions may eventually improve, according to the Thursday National Weather Service air quality alert.
Both Phillips Park Family Aquatic Center and Splash Country Water Park in Aurora were closed Thursday in response to the dangerous air quality levels, with officials to decide whether to reopen the pools Friday morning, according to Kyle Halverson, director of marketing and communications for the Fox Valley Park District.
Some Fox Valley Park District events were canceled Thursday, including the preschool in the park program and the Live & Uncorked music series show at Blackberry Farm in Aurora, which was rescheduled to July 30, Halverson said.
The ongoing heat wave had already forced some schedule changes on the park district. Red Oak Nature Center in North Aurora has closed to the public each day at noon this week to allow summer campers and counselors, who spend the morning outside or at The Wilds, to find shelter inside the Nature Center’s air conditioning during the peak heat of the day, according to a statement from the center.
Halverson said Fox Valley Park District officials kept staff and guest safety in mind when deciding on the recent closures.
Both Aurora pools were busy and getting close to maximum occupancy levels earlier this week during the heat wave, said Viktoria Anderson-Orosz, aquatics director for the park district. The maximum occupancy for Splash Country is 2,000 people and Phillips Park is 1,500.
Anderson-Orosz said the district adjusted staffing to accommodate the increased number of guests, along with other precautions such as taking safety breaks to allow residents and staff to hydrate and reapply sunscreen.
“We were really busy out there,” she said Wednesday. “It’s important the guests have access to our pools just because it’s not just a service at that point, but they do use this to cool down. Not everyone has air conditioning at home and everything so the water may give them a little bit of relief from the heat.”
Some community advocates also said they were concerned for people living unhoused in Aurora due to the heat wave and poor air quality. Annie Fish, Aurora winter warming center’s executive director, said volunteers with the warming center, which was operated this year by Becoming Oswego Church, handed out 12 $5 dollar gift cards for fast food places Thursday so that people living outside could find a cool place to get out of the heavy and smoky air for a while.
“Any time it’s compounded like heat and storms or heat and smoke, makes it super-hard for our neighbors and their health,” she said. “It’s just one of many conditions making it harder for folks.”
Volunteers in partnership with Becoming Oswego and the Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry have given dozens of sack lunches, water bottles, fans, deodorant, sunscreen, cooling towels, lip balms, portable chargers, summer clothing and more this summer to the unhoused in the Aurora area.
Fish said volunteers have built relationships with people living unhoused from the warming shelter, and they continued to check on those people this summer, where they heard a need for overnight shelters. Fish said part of the issue was that local shelters had people on wait lists this year, especially when Hesed House is at full capacity.
Fish said this summer she has seen the highest need for shelter for unhoused families in her six years working with the unhoused in Aurora.
“We were already in relationship with this community so we wanted to continue it, especially because the need didn’t go away. The need only got higher,” Fish said. “We need to really work as a community to have multiple things to help instead of one solution.”
Although the smoky haze in Aurora is not due to a local fire, Nickel, the interim fire chief, encouraged residents to continue staying vigilant about fires.
“Real fires can still occur locally, so if you see flames, a distinct column of smoke or other signs of an active fire, call 911 so our crews can respond and investigate,” he said.
Van De Sampel recommended residents check the National Weather Service website for updates on air quality in the area.
Residents can also access a list of cooling centers at https://www.aurora.il.us/City-Services/Cooling-Centers.
awright@chicagotribune.com
