Ontario wildfires engulf train in flames; smoke blankets the province. Here’s what to know

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How long will it last?

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The Ontario website listed a forecast of 9 AQHI for Toronto on Thursday. Evans says there may be relief Friday due to shifting winds and rain that could wash some of the smoke out of the air.

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“And then there’s the actual fires themselves in northwestern Ontario,” he says. “Difficult to say whether or not those are going to remain the same, expand, or hopefully get abated by the firefighters up there. But as long as the wildfires are burning, the smoke is going somewhere.”

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That includes down into the United States, where already cities like Boston and New York have noticed the strange colour in the sky this week. Last summer, six members of Congress went so far as to send a letter of complaint to Canada’s embassy.

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There are 838 active wildfires across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, and almost 2 million forest hectares have burned this year to date.

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What can people do?

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“It’s about limiting your exposure to it,” says Madeleine Orr, a professor of kinesiology and physical education at U of T. “It’s all about prevention.”

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She adds: “Most people are probably fine to sit on the porch and go for a short walk. What we’re looking at here is two things: exposure time and the amount of pollutant content you get into your lungs.”

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Masks can help with the second variable, she says: “And an N95 will meaningfully reduce the exposure. But that’s not to say that you can do that and then go work your intense landscaping job all day. It’s not a ‘fix everything.’ It might extend your exposure a little bit.”

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Evans adds that if you have central air conditioning you should run the fan continuously, even without the cooling function, since it will allow whatever filters the system has to treat the smoky air as it comes into your house.

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“This is the first time to my recollection that we’ve had a one-two punch of both extreme heat and wildfires impact Toronto,” Evans says, adding that for anyone without air conditioning, it presents a difficult choice: Do I keep the windows closed against the smoke, or open them for “fresh air” that isn’t really fresh?