ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. – The air quality is having an impact on residents, and even people visiting the Rockbridge County area.
A haze is sitting over the county, and at times a bright orange sun. Jessica Halasz is a Colorado resident who’s been visiting Lexington this week.
“It’s pretty intense even compared to when we have local wildfires even in Colorado,” Halasz said. “This is some of the worst that I’ve seen even when we had fires nearby us there.”
Emergency leaders agree it was bad enough to close school. Rockbridge County Public Schools, Lexington City, and Buena Vista all shut down on Thursday.
“Yesterday we worked with our HVAC company to shut off the outside air that was coming into the building to try to limit the amount of smoke that did get into the building,” Rockbridge County Public Schools Chief Operations Officer Randy Walters said. “Natural Bridge Elementary School is the closest school to fire right now, but we actually noticed smoke at all of our schools.”
Walters said school leaders are just going to have to take things day by day.
“We’ll meet with all those that are out on the frontlines and you know can give us the best advice,” Walters said. “We’ll keep the safety of our students, faculty, and staff of utmost importance to us, and we’ll make the decision based on the recommendation that they give us.”
For people interested in helping fire relief efforts, the Bank of the James in downtown Lexington is accepting donations, specifically snack foods, through 5 p.m. Friday.