大象传媒

Nearly 100 million people across the United States and Canada have been experiencing dangerously poor air quality as smoke from the intense wildfires raging across Canada's eastern provinces, continues to stretch across the two countries.

New York City and Ottawa have recorded some of the worst conditions, with the air quality reaching "hazardous" levels.

The pollution has turned the sky orange in New York with schools and businesses affected by the polluted air. City officials will begin distributing N95 respiratory masks last worn during the Covid pandemic.

Digital editor & reporter for The Hill Times, Chelsea Nash who is in the Canadian capital of Ottawa described the unprecedented event to Newsday.

"We've never seen anything like this in Ottawa in terms of air quality. Definitely a new thing on the east coast: it's been thick... it looks foggy but the smell is like you're right in front of a campfire and you can almost taste it."

"A lot of firefighters are coming from other countries to help... from South Africa... France, United States, Australia and New Zealand."

(Pic: A firefighter douses fires in Nova Scotia; Credit: Reuters)

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