The Air Quality Index in regions from New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley through Central and Western New York has reached unhealthy levels.
On Wednesday afternoon, the floating River Pool in Beacon was totally empty. Chloe Goessl said it's usually packed.
The lifeguard guessed it was because of the wildfire smoke already in the air.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow program, the AQI on Thursday morning showed moderate levels of air pollution across Eastern New York — from the Hudson Valley through the Adirondacks — as well as Massachusetts and Vermont. West of Ithaca, the EPA’s AQI map indicated unhealthy air quality for all groups and very unhealthy air quality in Buffalo.
Dr. David Hill, a pulmonologist in Waterbury, Connecticut, and former chair of the Connecticut American Lung Association Leadership Board, said wildfires are a type of particulate pollution that can be especially dangerous for people with respiratory conditions.
“So our emergency rooms will be busier. Our hospitals will be busier, and our outpatient offices will be busier, and people will get sicker," Hill said. "And that includes, you know, increased hospitalization and increased mortality. ... some people will die because they're exposed to the bad air quality and smoke.”
A 2025 Stanford University study estimated wildfire smoke emissions caused over 40,000 deaths per year between 2011 and 2020.
Hill said people should avoid going outside in smoky conditions. But those who must go out should wear a KN-95 mask. He suggested drivers run their air conditioning in recirculate mode to avoid drawing in outside air.
He also said vulnerable groups include people over 65 years old, under the age of 18, pregnant people, and anyone with chronic health conditions like lung or heart disease.
Hill is worried wildfires impacting the Northeast will become more frequent.
“I grew up when this was not an issue, where wildfires were, you know, primarily a West Coast phenomenon," he said. "And what we've seen over the last 10 years is this is becoming a global phenomenon, where we have to pay attention here on the East Coast [to] fires that are happening — hundreds of miles away, thousands of miles away — that are causing our air to become unhealthy.”
Back in Beacon on Wednesday, Malini Srinivasan was with her son Avi at the Metro-North train station. She called the smoke outside “eerie.”
“I'm mystified," Malini said.
"We just got here," Avi added. "I don't know what is going. ... I'm just gonna guess that there's some machine somewhere that's just causing this, or it's just cloudy and humid today.”
Sarah Gurevich was a bit more pessimistic.
“It feels like end times, apocalypse, and that like, soon, you know, the way that water is being monetized as a resource," Gurevich said. "I was just joking with somebody, sadly, that it seems like air is probably going to be the next thing, and you'll have little like masks that come down in like an airplane or a train, but only for business class if you pay extra.”
Gurevich said she doesn’t want to walk her dog in this weather, and she is worried about her son, who is at camp.
Jason Chipman and Sarah Donaldson were out on Beacon’s waterfront for what they described as a “breath of fresh air” and said they were not expecting the smoke.
“I've been watching like TikToks talking about like how this is kind of just like a new season we have, like Canada lighting on fire. Now we got all this smoke every like summer," Donaldson said.
"I wonder if it's gonna be like a future for us of just like every summer there's gonna be like a major fire and like we're just gonna have to start living like that,” Chipman added. "I think it kind of hopefully gives people a little bit of a scare."
A scare, Chipman said, to get people to start thinking more about the human impact on the environment.
