NEW YORK - Smoke from Canadian wildfires shrouded New York in a record-breaking apocalyptic smog on Wednesday as cities along the United States’ East Coast issued air quality alerts and thousands evacuated their homes in Canada.

The Big Apple’s mayor urged residents to stay indoors as the thick haze of pollution cast an eerie yellowish glow over Manhattan’s famous skyscrapers, delayed flights and forced the postponement of sporting events.

More than 100 million people across America’s north-east, and extending west to Chicago and south to Atlanta, were under pollution warnings after the smoke drifted from Canada, the US Environmental Protection Agency said.

In Canada itself, the devastating wildfires have displaced more than 20,000 people and scorched about 3.8 million ha of land. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this is the worst wildfire season Canada has ever had.

Some flights into the New York City (NYC) area and Philadelphia on Wednesday were delayed and others briefly halted because of reduced visibility from the wildfire smoke.

Some of the region’s ports have also been shut due to the smoke.

“It smells like someone is doing a barbecue,” said Ms Nicha Suaittiyanon, a 30-year-old tourist to NYC from Thailand, who complained of watery and itchy eyes.

Lawyer Hugh Hill, 43, said his throat had been stinging from the harmful haze, which he likened to the smell of a wood-burning fire.

Like many New Yorkers, he chose to cover his face while out walking his dog in Central Park, normally Manhattan’s green lung.

“I don’t know if it’s psychological or physical, but I know there’s some benefit to wearing a mask. Obviously, it’s not going to prevent everything, but the dog has to be walked,” he told AFP.

The Health Department ordered a work suspension for the city’s carriage horses. Children at some schools in the region were sent home masked.

IQAir, which tracks air quality around the world, said New York – normally known for its piercing blue skies – was enduring the worst air quality index of any major city in the world.

New Delhi, renowned for its pollution, was the second worst. New York is normally outside the top 3,000 worst cities for pollution, according to the website.

Hazardous

AirNow, another monitor, said the Big Apple’s air quality index reached a hazardous level of 413 at 5pm (5am Singapore time), just short of the scale’s maximum of 500.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist Ryan Stauffer told AFP that New York had broken its previous air quality index high, set 21 years ago.

NYC health commissioner Aswin Vasan said the metropolis was experiencing its worst air quality since the 1960s, while New York state Governor Kathy Hochul called it an “emergency crisis” that could last several days. “People need to prepare for this as a long haul,” she added. 

All outdoor activities at NYC public schools were suspended, with Mayor Eric Adams urging city dwellers to limit outdoor time to “the absolute necessities”.

“This is not the day to train for a marathon,” he told reporters.

The smog enveloped the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline, with the Federal Aviation Administration saying it had slowed traffic to and from the city’s airports due to reduced visibility.

Baseball fans were left disappointed after the New York Yankees game against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night was postponed with the haze hovering over the Bronx. Major League Baseball also postponed Wednesday’s game between the Phillies and the Detroit Tigers due to poor air quality.

The Women’s National Basketball Association and National Women’s Soccer League also announced postponements.

An outdoor food-tasting event featuring 40 restaurants hosted by the Central Park Conservancy was halted. 

In music, organisers cancelled the opening night of a concert series in Brooklyn set to feature Corinne Bailey Rae.

And the actress Jodie Comer walked off the stage of her one-woman Broadway show Prima Facie after just 10 minutes, citing breathing difficulties, and was replaced by an understudy, a spokesman for the production told AFP.

In Washington, the authorities warned that the air quality was “unhealthy for people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens” and cancelled all outdoor activities in public schools, including sports lessons.

Climate crisis

White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre said the situation was an “alarming example of the ways in which the climate crisis is disturbing our lives”.

Scientists say warming temperatures increase the risk of the hot and dry weather that often fans wildfires.

In Canada, more than 11,000 locals have already been evacuated from Quebec province, now the epicentre of the disaster, with another 4,000 expected to flee by the end of Wednesday, said local leader Francois Legault.

US President Joe Biden said on Twitter that more than 600 US firefighters and other personnel, along with equipment, had been deployed to Canada to help battle the blazes.

Back in NYC, Mr Jack Wright, a 76-year-old retired lawyer said the pollution had “generated a cough all day long”.

“I quit smoking 50 years ago, but it’s a kind of a cough I would have when I was smoking,” he told AFP, braving a walk along the East River.

Not everyone, though, was disturbed by the acrid stench that hung over the city of 8.7 million residents.

“It does not bother me. You know, New York often smells strange,” said 78-year-old retiree Pamela Roderick.

These sorts of apocalyptic scenes have played out frequently in recent years in North America, as climate change has contributed to more frequent and more extreme blazes.

On the West Coast, historic wildfires blanketed much of Northern California in smoke in recent years and turned San Francisco’s skies orange in 2020.

Prior wildfires in Alberta resulted in plumes of smoke that reached New York but only produced dazzling sunsets. 

But the infernos in 2023, which have struck in Alberta and Quebec, are stunning New Yorkers who have enjoyed improving air quality over the past decade. 

The smoke is filling the air with dangerous levels of fine particulate matter and according to state officials, created the worst air conditions in New York state in more than 20 years since another Canadian wildfire smoke enveloped the state.

Conditions are forecast to temporarily improve later on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, before they deteriorate again, Mr Adams said in his press conference. He urged New Yorkers to keep windows closed and turn off the settings on air-conditioners that circulate air from outside.

Airborne particles and toxins can cause complications for people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as cardiovascular illness, and can be more serious for young children and older people. 

New Yorkers flooded social media on Wednesday afternoon with pictures of the city as few could recall seeing it before – with its landmark buildings and bridges rapidly becoming invisible beneath the curtain of thick smog.

Shortly after noon, the Statue of Liberty, typically visible on a clear summer day in June, looked like a dark smudge on the horizon when viewed from the Hudson River shoreline in Lower Manhattan. 

By Wednesday afternoon, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation had issued a health advisory for every region in the entire state, except the Adirondacks, warning the air quality will reach “unhealthy” levels that could remain through all of Thursday. 

“Yesterday, New Yorkers saw and smelled something that has never impacted us on this scale before,” Mr Adams said. “As I was out walking the streets, clearly we knew something was happening that was beyond normal.”  AFP, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG