Spare The Air Alert Friday: Wood Burning Ban in Effect

Make it three days in a row.

At noon today, Bay Area air quality officials issued a Spare the Air alert for Friday.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District already had a wood burning ban in effect for Thursday.

Friday will be the third consecutive Spare the Air day. It'll also be the sixth time this month a Spare The Air order has been issued.

The prohibition is in effect all day and all night both Thursday and Friday.

The alerts prohibit the burning of wood, firelogs, pellets or other solid fuels in a fireplace or other wood-burning device. Residents whose only source of heat is wood burning are exempt from the prohibition.

First-time violators are given the option of taking an online wood smoke class or paying a $100 fine. Second-time violators are fined $500. The fines continue to increase with each violation.

"Like cigarette smoke, wood smoke has immediate health impacts for both residents inside the home and surrounding neighbors as well," said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the air district. "When a Winter Spare the Air Alert is called, wood smoke pollution sits in our neighborhoods creating unhealthy air for Bay Area residents."

In the winter, wood smoke from the 1.4 million fireplaces and wood stoves in the Bay Area is the single largest source of air pollution, contributing about one-third of the harmful fine particulate pollution in the air. Exposure to wood smoke — like cigarette smoke — has been linked to serious respiratory illnesses and even increased risk of heart attacks.