Reliance on wood heat creates unhealthful air

As if windstorms, power failures and bitter cold weren't enough, now all the woodstoves and fireplaces have added a new problem: unhealthful air.

Air pollution, mostly from wood smoke, has gotten so bad in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties that children, the elderly and people with lung or heart problems should stay indoors, air-quality officials warned Monday. It's so bad in some areas that they're advising everyone to be careful.

It's the worst the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has seen since it started tracking air pollution from microscopic soot in the late 1990s, said Mike Gilroy, the agency's meteorologist. And it's expected to last at least through today, as power outages continue and a blanket of cold air lies over the region, trapping the wood smoke.

The Clean Air agency, which enforces clean-air regulations in King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties, is urging people not to burn storm debris. Outdoor burning is illegal in and around cities. Even where it's legal, the agency is hoping people will avoid it for now for the sake of the air, said agency spokeswoman Amy Warren.

Though normally the agency would impose a burn ban, it is not for now because so many people have no choice but to burn wood to stay warm.

"What's the point, other than making a lot of people mad?" Gilroy said of a burn ban.

But anyone with other heat sources should use them. And those who have to use wood should try to use pieces that have dried for at least six months because it burns cleaner.

A faint haze hung over much of east King County on Monday afternoon, and some of the worst air in the region was measured in Lake Forest Park.

One resident there, Jason Williams, said he lit a fire in his woodstove after he and his pregnant wife stayed in a motel for a couple of nights.

He needed to warm things up while he stayed at the house during the day, and for their two cats, Caesar and Luna.

Two blocks away, power lines were pinned to the ground by a fallen tree. The earliest Williams heard they might have power back: midnight tonight.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com