Sacramento Schools Limiting Outdoor Activities Due To Smoke From Camp Fire

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Schools around Sacramento are taking the smoky skies seriously.

With smoke from the Camp Fire blanketing most of Northern California, the Sacramento City Unified School District is on alert to ensure student safety.

"Just looking outside. It looks like there's a bbq," said Arturo Romero.

Romero wasn't planning on bringing his son to school on Tuesday.

"We were actually planning on keeping him home today, but just hearing that pretty much gives us a decision to bring him," he said.

The unhealthy air quality outside has the district calling parents to let them know that students would have to avoid outdoor activities, at least until further notice.

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Students at Brett Hart Elementary worked on drawing, writing letters, among other activities, instead of playing outside during recess.

"We make sure that we have a lot of hands-on manipulatives in the classroom, like Legos, blocks, linking cubes so they have stuff like that to work on," said Principal James Tucker.

That means the playground sat empty as smoke from the Camp Fire continues to invade the skies, freely flowing down the valley.

"So we're seeing that in the north end of the valley and then that hazardous air will just flow downstream, and park, for example, now in the Delta," said CBS 13 Meteorologist Kristine Hanson.

Hanson said it's also difficult to predict just how bad the smoke is from one part of town to the next because it's currently sitting on low lying spots and very slight winds can push it any direction.

"So we may see very hazardous air here but then maybe just a few miles away you have better air quality," she said.

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For parents like Romero, that means one thing.

"Definitely not going outside too much," he said.

Officials at the Sacramento City Unified School District added that their plan is to keep students indoors again on Wednesday.

San Juan Unified and Elk Grove School Districts also kept their students indoors Tuesday. Additionally, Sacramento State canceled class through Wednesday due to the air quality.