Hello, Omschooligans! Teacher Omi and her neighbors in Michigan and around the Great Lakes are dealing with smoke right now, from wildfires in Canada. And we are concerned for our Canadian neighbors in Ontario who are affected by these dangerous conditions of smoke and fire. This recalls, 15 years later the wildfires in Texas, spurred by drought and winds from Tropical Storm Lee. They also call the mind the anniversary of another devastating series of wildfires. 35 years ago, in California , firestorms broke out in Oakland and Berkeley Hills, touched off by "Diablo winds." Here are free printable lesson plans about wildfires plus a Q-and-A about those winds and the devastation wrought by fire. I've included fire emergency preparedness resources too.
Safety First 
When wildfire smoke is present, the most effective way to protect your health is to minimize your exposure to fine particles.
Keep Your Indoor Air Clean
Stay Indoors: Keep windows and doors closed to prevent smoke from entering.
Filter the Air: Use a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter in the room where you spend the most time.
Avoid Indoor Pollution: Certain activities can increase indoor particle levels. Avoid burning candles or incense, frying or broiling food, using gas/propane stoves, and smoking or vaping.
Stay Indoors: Keep windows and doors closed to prevent smoke from entering.
Filter the Air: Use a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter in the room where you spend the most time.
Avoid Indoor Pollution: Certain activities can increase indoor particle levels. Avoid burning candles or incense, frying or broiling food, using gas/propane stoves, and smoking or vaping.
When You Must Be Outdoors
Check Air Quality: Use AirNow.gov
Wear a Proper Mask: If you must go outside, wear a well-fitting NIOSH-approved N95 respirator
Reduce Intensity: If you cannot reschedule essential outdoor tasks, limit your time spent outdoors and avoid strenuous physical activities like running or mowing the lawn, which increase the amount of smoke you inhale.
Check Air Quality: Use
Wear a Proper Mask: If you must go outside, wear a well-fitting NIOSH-approved N95 respirator
Reduce Intensity: If you cannot reschedule essential outdoor tasks, limit your time spent outdoors and avoid strenuous physical activities like running or mowing the lawn, which increase the amount of smoke you inhale.
Traveling and Emergencies
In Your Car: Keep windows rolled up and set your vehicle’s ventilation system to "recirculate" to prevent outside smoke from being pulled in.
Medical Precautions: If you have heart or lung conditions (such as asthma or COPD), follow your specific health action plan, keep your medications on hand, and contact your doctor if your symptoms worsen.
Evacuation: If local officials issue an evacuation order, follow it immediately.
In Your Car: Keep windows rolled up and set your vehicle’s ventilation system to "recirculate" to prevent outside smoke from being pulled in.
Medical Precautions: If you have heart or lung conditions (such as asthma or COPD), follow your specific health action plan, keep your medications on hand, and contact your doctor if your symptoms worsen.
Evacuation: If local officials issue an evacuation order, follow it immediately.
More on Canadian Wildfires, July 2026
As of July 18, 2026, the wildfire situation in Canada—particularly in Ontario—has been driven by a "perfect storm" of climate and environmental conditions.
The primary causes and contributing factors include:
Climate Extremes: Persistent severe drought and record-breaking heat have left vegetation extremely dry, providing abundant "fuel" for fires to ignite and spread rapidly.
Snow Drought: Historically low snowpack across parts of the continent led to premature melting, allowing the terrain to dry out much earlier in the season than usual.
Lightning: A significant thunderstorm complex that moved across the region in early July triggered numerous lightning strikes, which are believed to have ignited several of the large, out-of-control fires, particularly in western Ontario.
Atmospheric Conditions: Stagnant weather patterns and high-pressure systems have helped maintain these fires, with extreme heat and low moisture content in the air further increasing the risk of ignition.
How does the smoke travel so far
The transport of smoke and ash from Canadian wildfires into the Great Lakes region is driven by a combination of high-altitude wind currents and specific regional pressure patterns.
Key Wind Mechanisms
The Jet Stream: This high-speed "river" of wind in the upper atmosphere acts as a conveyor belt, capturing smoke particles and transporting them over vast distances from Canadian boreal forests to the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.
Northwesterly Flow: The smoke is frequently steered by a combination of high-pressure systems to the southeast and low-pressure systems to the northeast.
This pressure configuration creates a persistent "northwesterly flow"—winds blowing from the northwest toward the southeast—which acts to funnel the smoke directly into the Great Lakes region. Atmospheric Mixing: When high-pressure systems weaken, or when cold fronts pass through, air can sink from the mid-levels of the atmosphere to the surface.
This process "mixes" the elevated smoke plumes down to ground level, which significantly degrades local air quality and makes the smoke perceptible to residents.
Why the Smoke Travels So Far
Extreme Fire Intensity: Intense wildfires generate massive heat, creating strong updrafts and "pyrocumulonimbus" clouds.
These clouds can inject smoke particles high into the atmosphere—sometimes more than 5 miles high or even into the stratosphere—where they can remain suspended and travel for days or weeks. Stagnant Weather Patterns: Stagnant conditions and "heat domes" can trap smoke, preventing it from dispersing quickly and allowing it to blanket large areas for extended periods.
While prevailing summer winds in the Great Lakes region typically blow from the west-southwest, the unusual northerly or northwesterly patterns described above are responsible for the recurring smoke events that have impacted the region recently.
Bastrop County Complex Fire
The deadly wildfires in Bastrop, Texas, known as the Bastrop County Complex Fire, began on September 4, 2011
The fire burned through October 2011 and is remembered as one of the most destructive wildfires in Texas history.
Impact: The fire consumed over 32,000 to 34,000 acres, destroyed nearly 1,700 homes, and resulted in the deaths of two people.
Cause: The blaze was ignited by high winds—exacerbated by Tropical Storm Lee—which pushed trees onto power lines, creating sparks that quickly spread through the drought-stricken landscape.
Conditions: The region was suffering from an exceptional, record-breaking drought and extreme heat, which created highly volatile fire conditions.
The 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm
Timeline: The fire began as a small brush fire on October 19, 1991, in the Berkeley Hills.
Although firefighters believed they had extinguished it, Diablo winds rekindled the embers on the morning of October 20, driving a rapidly spreading firestorm into residential neighborhoods. Impact: The firestorm lasted for three days and was one of the most destructive in California history.
It destroyed approximately 3,800 homes and apartment units, caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damages (1991 dollars), and resulted in 25 deaths. Contributing Factors: The area was experiencing a five-year drought, and a severe freeze in December 1990 had left significant amounts of dead, highly flammable vegetation.
The combination of dry fuels, steep terrain, and Diablo wind gusts reaching 65–70 mph created erratic fire behavior that overwhelmed firefighting efforts.
What is a "Diablo wind?"
"Diablo" is a Spanish word meaning "devil." Diablo winds were so-named for the wild destruction they caused in parts of California in 1991. Diablo winds most typically occur over the San Francisco Bay area. Like the more familiar Santa Ana winds, Diablo winds are hot, dry northeasterly offshore 40-mph gusts noted for producing wildfires in southern California and the Baja Peninsula. Santa Ana winds occur most frequently in late fall and early winter and form over the Great Basin. They kick up over high desert elevations, while Diablo winds form in the mountains around the Bay.
What is a drainage wind?
Both Diablo and Santa Ana winds are drainage winds. A drainage wind is also called mountain or Katabatic wind. The term comes from the Greek for "moving downhill." In a Katabatic, or fall wind, gravity sucks high density air down slopes, at speeds that can reach hurricane force. Notable drainage winds include France's Mistral, the Bora of the Adriatic Sea, New Zealand's "Barber" and the Oroshi wind of Japan.
What is a firestorm?
As wildfire spread by forward directional movement, a firestorm, driven by gusting cyclonic winds, is more erratic. It flings embers around, causing fires break out. Firestorms create their own winds which propel the blaze in crazy patterns.
What happened in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm?
On Oct. 19, during the windy season, an improperly maintained brush fire set five acres alight in Berkeley Hills, Calif. Diablo winds with gusts up to 65 mph, caused the blaze to restart and develop into a firestorm. For three days, the fire ravaged a 1,520-acre area.
What was the death and damage toll?
The firestorm, called also the East Bay Hills Firestorm and Tunnel Firestorm (as it broke out near the Caldecott Tunnel), is notorious not for the area of land it covered, but the the damage it caused. Firestorms caused $1.5 billion in damage, burning 3,354 homes and destroying 437 apartment complexes and condominiums. 25 lives were lost in this terrifying and unexpected storm.
How has firefighting changed in response to the 1991 firestorm?
Building construction changed to create safer, fire-resistant structures. Updates were made to firefighting equipment and public address systems. When a brush fire struck in 2008, in the same location, lesson learned from the 1991 firestorm, enabled firefighters to contain the blaze in 90 minutes. The community will also host a twentieth-anniversary memorial tribute.
To help children understand firestorms, visit these links for details:
General Wildfire Lesson Plans & Resources
For foundational science lessons, these resources offer interactive materials, laboratory activities, and safety guidelines for various grade levels:
Wildland Fire Science School Wildfire Lesson Plans (Penn State) Project Learning Tree (PLT) Activities FireWorks Program
Bastrop County Complex Fire Resources
While specific "lesson plans" for this fire are limited, these resources provide excellent historical and emergency management data for case study analysis:
Bastrop County Emergency Preparedness Wildfire Mitigation Study Facilitated Learning Analysis (2022)
Oakland Hills Firestorm (1991) Resources
These materials are ideal for history, sociology, or environmental science projects, focusing on the human impact and policy changes:
Oakland Hills Firestorm Summary Oakland History Room Exhibit UC Berkeley "Remembering the 1991 Firestorm" Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
Teacher Omi's Bibliotherapy Corner
Featured Title
Polacco, Patricia. Tikvah Means Hope. Philomel Books, 1994.
Description: Based on the real-life 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm,
this heartfelt story follows a neighborhood preparing for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when a sudden fire ravages their homes. It is a poignant exploration of loss, community resilience, and finding hope—symbolized by a miraculous discovery—in the wake of a disaster.
Books About Wildfires: Science, Ecology, and Resilience
Alper, Sascha. The Fire, the Water and Maudie McGinn. Quokka Publishing, 2023.
Focus: A story about a young girl navigating complex family life, autism, and the life-changing experience of a forest fire.
Fong, Pam. Once Upon a Forest. Random House Studio, 2022.
Focus: A beautiful, largely wordless story about a marmot and a bird working together to replant trees after a devastating fire.
Furgang, Kathy. National Geographic Kids: Wildfires. National Geographic Children's Books, 2017.
Focus: An excellent photo-heavy resource that explains the "fire triangle," types of fire, and how landscapes recover after a blaze.
Lara, Carrie. Out of the Fires: A Journal of Resilience and Recovery After Disaster. Magination Press, 2023.
Focus: Written as a fictional journal, this book offers a first-person perspective on coping with and recovering from a wildfire event.
Marino, Gianna. We Will Live in This Forest Again. Roaring Brook Press, 2020.
Focus: A story following a band of animals as they flee a wildfire and eventually return to their home, emphasizing recovery.
Peluso, Beth A. The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants. Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2007.
Focus: Explores the ecology of wildfire-adapted species, explaining how fire can be a necessary part of a forest's life cycle.
Wagstaffe, Johanna. Little Pine Cone: Wildfires and the Natural World. Orca Book Publishers, 2022.
Focus: Told from the perspective of a pinecone, this book shares scientific facts about wildfire behavior and ecosystem renewal.
Books About Fire Safety
Cuyler, Margery. Stop, Drop, and Roll. Scholastic, 2001.
Focus: A classic introduction to fire safety basics and the proper actions to take during a fire emergency.
Delaney, Dohn. Fire Safety – Make a Safe Escape. Fire Safety Educators, 2015.
Focus: Written by firefighters, this book emphasizes the importance of having and practicing a home escape plan.
Herrington, Lisa M. Fire Safety. Scholastic, 2013.
Focus: Part of the "Safety First!" series, it provides clear information on prevention, emergency plans, and equipment.
Pendziwol, Jean E. No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons). Kids Can Press, 1999.
Focus: A fun, engaging way to teach children the fundamental rules of fire safety using a friendly dragon as a character.
