\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWildfire smoke has caused poor air quality across Allegheny County, leading to closures, cancellations and adjustments to events and attractions.The smog, which has created a Code Purple air quality alert, resulted in the closure of many public pools in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, as well as Kennywood, Sandcastle and Idlewild. County Executive Sara Innamorato canceled the county\u2019s summer concert series and urged caution. \u201cWe\u2019re asking our county workers to limit their time outdoors and engage in no strenuous activity outdoors,\u201d Innamorato said. One major event affected was P3R\u2019s annual America\u2019s Mile race on the North Shore, which typically draws thousands of participants, from children to elite runners.Brian Schmidt, senior vice president of operations for P3R, said his team began monitoring the heat last week before the air quality became a greater concern this week. \u201cThen this morning, consulting with city of Pittsburgh officials, our partners at UPMC, made the decision that it was right to cancel the event for the safety of our participants, our staff, our volunteers, those that will be working the event, coming down just to spectate,” Schmidt said.Schmidt said the decision to cancel was made with safety in mind. \u201cBeing outside for a long period of time with the air quality index that we have, the effects that can have to individuals, all, and especially those that are at higher risk, it just wasn’t, you know, it’s not the best thing to do. And we want to make sure, as always, here at P3R, the safety of all is always utmost important,\u201d Schmidt said. P3R is offering refunds on entry fees or the option to donate the funds to charity on behalf of participants. Chauncey Alexander, an organizer with the Voting is Power Coalition, announced that local events for the National John Lewis Weekend of Action have been moved indoors due to air quality concerns and the possibility of rain. “Our weekend of action starts this evening. We had a candlelight vigil scheduled for the North Side; we moved that inside. Tomorrow was the march. Because of the air quality and the chance of rain, we have moved everything inside for tomorrow as well,” Alexander said. Alexander stressed the importance of safety for participants while encouraging them to make informed decisions about attending. “If you feel you can\u2019t venture outside, we completely understand. But we do believe it\u2019s important to carry these conversations, especially in the world that we\u2019re living in today. Making sure that people feel that they understand not just when to vote and where to vote but also what their civic opportunities are across the region,” Alexander said.Despite the air quality concerns, some events continued.Picklesburgh, a popular Pittsburgh festival, still drew a crowd. \u201cI really like pickles,\u201d said Eryn Moore, who traveled more than an hour with her family to attend. Kristy Ference, Eryn’s parent, said, \u201cAs far as any issues, I don’t really see any right now. Again, I wouldn’t do anything strenuous, like go for a run or for a bike ride or anything like that. But so far, it’s not too bad.\u201d The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership encouraged attendees, staff and vendors to use their discretion regarding participation. Meanwhile, the South Side Street Fest, which is held every Friday and Saturday night on East Carson Street, was canceled for the evening due to the conditions.The smoky conditions made it difficult to see even nearby landmarks, such as the South Side from Mount Washington, underscoring the impact of the wildfire smoke on the region.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Wildfire smoke has caused poor air quality across Allegheny County, leading to closures, cancellations and adjustments to events and attractions.<\/p>\n
The smog, which has created a Code Purple air quality alert, resulted in the closure of many public pools in the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, as well as Kennywood, Sandcastle and Idlewild. County Executive Sara Innamorato canceled the county\u2019s summer concert series and urged caution. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re asking our county workers to limit their time outdoors and engage in no strenuous activity outdoors,\u201d Innamorato said. <\/p>\n
One major event affected was P3R\u2019s annual America\u2019s Mile race on the North Shore, which typically draws thousands of participants, from children to elite runners.<\/p>\n
Brian Schmidt, senior vice president of operations for P3R, said his team began monitoring the heat last week before the air quality became a greater concern this week. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen this morning, consulting with city of Pittsburgh officials, our partners at UPMC, made the decision that it was right to cancel the event for the safety of our participants, our staff, our volunteers, those that will be working the event, coming down just to spectate,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n
Schmidt said the decision to cancel was made with safety in mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing outside for a long period of time with the air quality index that we have, the effects that can have to individuals, all, and especially those that are at higher risk, it just wasn’t, you know, it’s not the best thing to do. And we want to make sure, as always, here at P3R, the safety of all is always utmost important,\u201d Schmidt said. <\/p>\n
P3R is offering refunds on entry fees or the option to donate the funds to charity on behalf of participants. <\/p>\n
Chauncey Alexander, an organizer with the Voting is Power Coalition, announced that local events for the National John Lewis Weekend of Action have been moved indoors due to air quality concerns and the possibility of rain. <\/p>\n
“Our weekend of action starts this evening. We had a candlelight vigil scheduled for the North Side; we moved that inside. Tomorrow was the march. Because of the air quality and the chance of rain, we have moved everything inside for tomorrow as well,” Alexander said. <\/p>\n
Alexander stressed the importance of safety for participants while encouraging them to make informed decisions about attending. <\/p>\n
“If you feel you can\u2019t venture outside, we completely understand. But we do believe it\u2019s important to carry these conversations, especially in the world that we\u2019re living in today. Making sure that people feel that they understand not just when to vote and where to vote but also what their civic opportunities are across the region,” Alexander said.<\/p>\n
Despite the air quality concerns, some events continued.<\/p>\n
Picklesburgh, a popular Pittsburgh festival, still drew a crowd. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really like pickles,\u201d said Eryn Moore, who traveled more than an hour with her family to attend. <\/p>\n
Kristy Ference, Eryn’s parent, said, \u201cAs far as any issues, I don’t really see any right now. Again, I wouldn’t do anything strenuous, like go for a run or for a bike ride or anything like that. But so far, it’s not too bad.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership encouraged attendees, staff and vendors to use their discretion regarding participation. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the South Side Street Fest, which is held every Friday and Saturday night on East Carson Street, was canceled for the evening due to the conditions.<\/p>\n
The smoky conditions made it difficult to see even nearby landmarks, such as the South Side from Mount Washington, underscoring the impact of the wildfire smoke on the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wildfire smoke has caused poor air quality across Allegheny County, leading to closures, cancellations and adjustments to events…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15887,30286,894,105411,80602,79887,105412,79,104972,15649,105414,5609,18854,12797,54860,73,105413,75,74,61297,105181,7363,88713],"class_list":["post-246296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-action","tag-air-quality-alert","tag-allegheny-county","tag-americas-mile","tag-attraction","tag-brian-schmidt","tag-chauncey-alexander","tag-city","tag-code-purple","tag-decision","tag-eryn-moore","tag-event","tag-p3r","tag-participant","tag-picklesburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-event","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pools","tag-poor-air-quality","tag-safety","tag-wildfire-smoke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}