Smoke from forest fire chokes Raleigh

Last night my husband and I returned home to Raleigh from a week-long trip to Minneapolis, where we visited family and where I attended the National Conference for Media Reform. The drive back from Minnesota was like a tour of Biblical plagues. We narrowly missed severe thunderstorms and twisters in the North Star State; passed devastating floods in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana; and encountered swarms of locusts (well, cicadas actually) in West Virginia. When we finally pulled into our driveway and exited the car, we were hit by the acrid smell of smoke -- the result of a massive forest fire near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. We awoke today to a smoky haze blanketing the city that's making breathing difficult for some vulnerable residents and is predicted to have health consequences for others. I had to shake my head when I turned to the News & Observer for news on the fire and found this story, in which UNC Hospitals lung specialist Dr. Robert Aris recommends that people stay inside where air conditioning can filter out the particulate pollution. What about those of us (like me) who choose not to live with air conditioning, or those of us who simply can't afford it? Have we really become so rare that our newspaper of record simply discounts our existence?