AP News51%
Wildfire smoke makes air unhealthy from the US Midwest to East Coast. Officials say stay inside 44%
By TAMMY WEBBER9% PHILIP MARCELO26%
7/16/2026, 3:18:23 PM
Keywords: Air Quality, Wildfires, Minnesota, Canada, Detroit, Illinois, Mn State Wire, Il State Wire, Michigan, New York City, Mi State Wire, New York, Steven Freitag, Health, Brent Williams, Karen Harrison, Omar Mitchell, Fires, Jake Petr, Bill Ostrowski, Climate And Environment, Maureen Hastings, Palak Raval Nelson
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Framing Effect, and Availability Heuristic, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 38.9% saturation with 180 hits. Analysis detected 531 faulty-reasoning hits from 463 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.6% and a BS Rank of 44% (11,522 of 20,540 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 56.10% of the article peer group.
NEW YORK (AP) — Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies in the U.S. on Thursday from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.
Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions.
The smoke is coming from fires that are burning primarily in Canada but also in northern Minnesota.
A lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Detroit, where air quality was among the worst in the world for major cities.
“Sure enough, it arrived in force here and it’s really pretty extreme levels,” said Freitag, who noted that visibility in some areas was reduced to a half mile.
“It’s scary,” Omar Mitchell, 50, said as he looked to the sky.
He wore a mask while walking to his restaurant in Detroit.
“You don’t know necessarily what the side effects may be.
That’s days or months later.”
Microscopic particles can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart and lung problems and contributing to other long-term health issues.
All of Michigan and much of Minnesota were under a hazardous air quality alert.
In the Chicago area, air quality ranged from very unhealthy to hazardous.
City officials urged people to avoid strenuous activity and stay inside or wear N95 or KN95 masks outside.
“Today is not the day to start your marathon training plan,” said Dr.
Palak Raval-Nelson, the city’s public health commissioner.
In Minnesota, forest rangers on Thursday combed a remote wilderness area for anyone who might still be there days after wildfires led to its closure.
Officials closed the Boundary Waters along the U.S.-Canada border on Tuesday.
At the time, 6,000 to 10,000 people were inside, but Superior National Forest staff estimated Wednesday that they’d reached 90% of them, said Karen Harrison, a spokesperson for state and federal agencies involved in the response.
She said Thursday that smoke is making it difficult for helicopters to fly and that fires are spreading despite firefighting efforts.
“There will be fire on the landscape until fall, and some fire will be burning until snow cover,” Harrison said.
The Royal Canadian Air Force successfully evacuated 11 Minnesota teenagers and four staff members Wednesday from wildfires in an Ontario provincial park about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of the Minnesota border.
Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.
Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Michigan, and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this report.
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100%flagged-word coverageSteven Freitag
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