The ongoing poor air quality has people in the Bay Area looking for relief, including repairing or installing in-home air filtration units – if they can be found. Sergio Quintana reports.
The ongoing poor air quality has people in the Bay Area looking for relief, including repairing or installing in-home air filtration units – if they can be found.
The smoke in the air Saturday was so thick it was visible on the 26th consecutive day a Spare the Air alert was issued in the Bay Area.
People in some place are struggling to keep the smoke out of their homes.
Some of the Bay Area’s busiest businesses this week have been air conditioning and ventilation repair companies.
That includes Sameh Tamimi and his team at Heating and Air HVAC Services in San Francisco. He said they’ve been getting more than 130 calls every day to replace air conditioning filters or install air scrubbers – an added filtration system.
Because of the pandemic, the recent heat wave and now the smoke, people are rushing to make their homes as safe and comfortable as possible.
“Basically right now, everybody is stuck in their home and it’s affecting, I would say, their mental health, their physical health,” Tamimi said. “As for kids, they can’t go to parks right now.”
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“It’s been crazy,” said Jenna Miller of Center Hardware and Supply Co. “We’ve been busy with the fires and we’ve been busy with COVID. Right now, as you can see, we have some fans left. Air purifiers, we’re getting those back in stock this week.”
At Center Hardware in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood there’s been a rush on air purifiers. It continues to be tough to find them anywhere in the Bay Area.
The other two most popular items at the local Ace Hardware store are air filters for home fans and N95 masks.
