As I walked to school on the first day and savoured the last few minutes of summer, I noticed the haze around the ridges, mountains and the sky. This wasn’t the first time that I have wondered why the sky has been so smoky, nor am I the only one who wonders.“We can see this weird haze all the way in Aspen, and its crazy! I wish I knew more about all the fires,” freshman Emily Brenninger said.Firefighters are battling wildfires across Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming, and most of these fires were started by lightning strikes. Currently 10,000 firefighters are combatting 22 active fires in California, and according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection their squad has fought more than 4,200 wildfires this year, which is 1,500 more than that in the average time period. The “Rocky Fire”, in California is 101 miles long. No wonder we can see the smoke all the way in Aspen, Colorado!

What is worse is that more than 7000 homes are in danger, and according to CNN more than 13,000 people were warned and even forced to evacuate the area. These lightning-sparked fires surpassed the Washington state record, and the US has 11,600 square miles scorched thus far, as stated by Aspen Daily News.

On the other hand, the air quality in Aspen may not be as bad as we think.

“The air quality has actually been great, it’s in the ‘green zone’ of the Air Quality Index (AQI) chart which is a good thing,” said Jannette Whitcomb, the City of Aspen’s senior environmental health specialist. She mentioned that two years ago, when Colorado had bad fires mixed with a dust storm, the air quality was very poor.

“That was probably one of the worst AQI values we’ve had.” Whitcomb states. According to her, with the help of the City of Aspen’s Environmental Department and RFTA’s bus system, we have maintained excellent air quality since the 90’s.

Nordic Coach Maria Stuber says that the bad air quality does not have much of an effect on her while she is exercising outside, though she suspected it is giving us runny noses and coughs.

“I barely feel a change in the air at all, but it could be giving us colds,” Stuber said. But, based on the Aspen’s Air Quality Index, it is proven that our air is in fact quite healthy. We decided that colds were more likely just the coincidence of school starting and the change in seasons.

So, even though the fires are still raging in the west, we should consider ourselves lucky that we live far enough away in our beautiful mountain hamlet that all we get is some haze in the sky.