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Early last week, The News-Gazette asked its Facebook readers how the smoke from the Matts Creek fire affected them.
Here are three of the responses: Anxiety swarmed through all my household, worried for our family members near the fire, worried for our own health and safety, and hoped for rain. We bought air purifiers, HEPA filters, duct taped windows and doors to help seal in clean air and keep smoke from getting in. And watched the AQI reader on our air purifier slowly go down to 40% even with everything closed off.
Airnow.gov has been the best insight to keep my family up to date as far as the fire spreading, AQI in our local area, and keeping an eye on loved ones near and far, and planning times to go out for necessities like work, water or food. Slowly over the week it’s been heartbreaking to watch photographers and brave citizens of Rockbridge capture the devastating growth, and doing all they can to fight it.
Those mountains have been such a staple to Blue Ridge Parkway and Glasgow. The giants that they are are the first things we see when traveling through the area and to see them right now is heartbreaking.
Definitely anxiety inducing. I can’t fathom the efforts of the fire teams; a thank you wouldn’t be enough at this point. Let alone the carnage this is gonna leave behind for all communities and its people. The most shocking thing in all of this for me personally, has been the eye opening reality on the swiftness in growth of the fire. Starting at such a small number at first, to now 10,000 acres. In a week! Bri Blankenship -The smoke was awful in Glasgow for days. Stayed inside but if I went out I put my mask on. Lois Harris -We didn’t have many problems. We keep a Corsi-Rosenthal box running to filter Covid (after attending a conference) and it works great for smoke, too. I have a bum ticker so I skipped the daily walks outdoors, which was a drag. Possum Keeble
