LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 14: The downtown skyline stands beyond the dry Hollywood Hills May 14, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. The rain season in Los Angeles is shaping up as the driest since record-keeping began in 1872 and the region is now in an “extreme” drought state, the second-driest ranking given by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Because of the drought, overgrowth from the second-wettest winter on record two years ago, dead leaves in much of the native chaparral habitat following a disastrous freeze in January, years of drought-induced bark beetle infestations that have killed untold thousands of pines in the mountain areas, and a fire season that continued throughout the winter, fire officials say that conditions are right for wildfires of disastrous proportions and frequency in southern California this year. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Indoor and outdoor wood burning will be prohibited Saturday in most of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties because of weather conditions conducive to concentrated pollution, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The agency issued a mandatory "no-burn" alert that will be in effect throughout the day Saturday for everyone living in the South Coast Air Basin, including Orange County and non-desert portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It does not apply to mountain communities above 3,000 feet, the Coachella Valley or the High Desert, or homes and low-income households that rely on wood as a sole source of heat, according to the AQMD.
The order bans burning wood or manufactured fire logs in fireplaces or any indoor or outdoor wood-burning device. People can still use gas and other non-wood-burning fireplaces.
"No-burn day alerts are mandatory in order to protect public health when levels of fine particulate air pollution in the region are forecast to be high," according to the AQMD. "Smoke from wood burning can cause health problems."
Particles in wood smoke -- also known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5 -- can get deep into the lungs and cause respiratory problems, including asthma attacks, according to the agency.
