About

So, why did I make this site?

I'm from California, and in my lifetime I have seen our wildfire seasons get increasingly worse, and "smoke season"--weeks if not months at a time when it is not safe to be outside or leave windows open--becoming an annual occurrence. I have lived through multiple years of orange skies in the Bay Area. Still, for California, that's kind of to be expected--it gets hot and dry here, and I haven't done the math but I think this state has spent more of my lifetime in a drought then out of one.

When Canada's wildfires started growing to mind-bogglingly huge proportions, and the smoke started to billow down the US East Coast, affecting cities that (though they might have other climate change-related problems) were supposed to be safe from wildfire smoke, I was horrified.

Even worse, no one--not local governments or businesses, not local organizations, not individuals--seemed to realize how serious it was. Here in the Bay Area, when our first truly horrible smoke season hit around 2019, grassroots mask distros like Mask Oakland seemed to sprout up immediately. People shared information about making DIY air purifiers and fundraised to get the supplies to make them, or to buy people air purifiers online.

I didn’t see the same kind of response happening elsewhere. So I figured if no one else was going to do it, it was worth stepping up and finding those resources for people myself. We keep each other safe and healthy—even when the world’s on fire.