As the summer has begun to come to an end and the fall semester is the outset for most students, universities continue to crack-down on social distancing and enforcement of rules that will keep students safe from the on-going pandemic. However, that is not the only issue that the University of Oregon must undertake. Fear spreads in the heart of Eugene, Oregon, where the college’s home lyes, due to the detrimental wildfires that continue to spread across the west coast. A shocking number of 36 fires have burned across a million acres of the Oregon solid, causing students and residents to fret evacuation as they face the effects of the fires head-on.
Friday, September 11th, marked the day that Eugene would see it’s the first worry of the fires. Karley Kofman is a senior at The University of Oregon, and a current Eugene resident. She recounted being in Target when the chilling event happened. While shopping for furniture and supplies for her last year at the university, she recalls everything being completely normal that day. That was until she noticed that everyone in Target, including herself, was receiving a loud ringing from their phone. Stating, “It was erring hearing all the phones go off in sync. The way everyone stopped to look down at their phones made it feel like something from the movie The Purge was about to occur.” That loud ringing from everyone's phones was an alert, warning the people of Eugene that a neighboring country, Lane county, was being evacuated.
However, the issue of evacuation was ignited 4 days earlier from the fire that broke out in Makenzie Valley. Oregon Live pinned the start of the fire from a tree fall during a power outage, quoting, “a power outage, a loud explosion and a shower of blue sparks from an electric line near milepost 47 on Oregon 126.” As a result, Holiday Farm Fire was born. Being dubbed Holiday because the disaster fell on Labor Day. The fire rapidly expanded due to the strong winds impelled from the east. Holiday Farm Fire went on to burn more than “165,000 acres and hundreds of structures along the McKenzie River corridor” (Kavanaugh, 2020). This resulted in the Farm Fire’s to become the closest fire to burn near The University of Oregon campus. Burning just 20 miles east from the yet to be hazardous campus.
Students currently await daily updates from the campus via text message. The residents of Eugene have been ordered to stay inside because the smoke intermixed with the fog has flooded the County of Eugene. Subsequently, air quality ranges from unhealthy to hazardous every day. Kaylen Duske, a junior at The University of Oregon, discussed how the air makes it hard to breathe outside. Stating, “The sky outside has turned yellow. I can’t even go a couple of blocks without feeling out of breath.” Although over the majority of Oregon’s classes are online, Duske does not doubt that classes will turn 100% remote before their first day of classes on September 31st because of the toxic air quality. Ranging from a low of 50 and to a high of over 500 almost every day.
High air pollution exposure can cause instant effects on one’s own health, like aggravated cardiovascular and respiratory illness. As well as long term, and permanent effects on one’s health, like cancer for example. Students and residents in the Eugene area need to be extremely careful of their whereabouts and activities during this time. Tackling Covid-19 and the hazardous air quality, should caution the citizens not to attend social gatherings and only leave the house for necessities. For now, staying up to date with the current status of the Holiday Farm Fires and staying indoors will be the best hope and safety for The University students.
