Following much backlash from the public due to the city’s handling of the hazardous smoke from the Canadian wildfires, which brought NYC the worst air quality in recent years, officials are asserting they are better equipped to handle the issue if it should happen again.
Yet, this time around, the mayor says the city had incorporated an unspecified “new technology” into its response and that serious air quality concerns will now trigger changes within hours for schools and outdoor events along with warnings for the public to wear high-quality face masks.
The city’s preemptive warning to New Yorkers on Thursday comes as Canadian officials have warned that the upcoming wildfire season could be “catastrophic” and “more explosive” than last year’s. According to local climate experts, New Yorkers should expect wildfire smoke to become the “new norm.”
Mayor Eric Adams and his administration were heavily criticized for their response to the smoke wafting down here last June, considering the city’s dense population and high percentages of elderly residents and people with asthma.
Though he and his administration argued at the time that the smoke was an unprecedented event and much of it was beyond their control. “What should we have done, put out the fires? Come on,” Adams said on Fox 5 last year.
Since the event, the mayor has expressed surprise at the extent of the air pollution that the smoke created here. “It was really something amazing to see how something so far away could impact our city and impact the breathing of everyday New Yorkers, even from 5,000 miles away,” Mayor Adams said during a press conference on Thursday, in which he also announced the city will be introducing more cooling centers to combat the heat.
Adams also reported that city officials are preparing to distribute free face masks when conditions become dangerous, a step that many people argued came too late last June as the numbers of people with asthma symptoms going to the emergency room spiked.
Zach Iscol, the city’s commissioner for emergency management, addressed the conditions in Canada during the conference, saying the city had consulted with San Francisco and other cities on how they prepare for wildfire smoke, and updated its response plan accordingly.
