Hazen High School football game canceled due to wildfire smoke

RENTON, Wash. — High temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds can potentially cause a dangerous weekend as wildfire smoke blows across western Washington.

“This is the peak of our fire season. It will not get more dangerous than this, the next two days,” said Matthew Dehr with the Washington Department of Natural Resources.

Due to the air quality, Hazen High School canceled its football game against Lindbergh at Renton Stadium on Friday night.

KIRO 7′s Bridget Chavez, who was reporting in Renton, said the smoke was visible and the smell could not be missed.

When Chavez pulled up the latest monitor from the Washington State Department of Ecology, it showed air quality in Renton was at an unhealthy level for sensitive groups and it appeared to be trending downward.

The poor air quality comes as evacuation orders are in place for parts of southwest Washington due to wildfire danger.

Those who arrived at the stadium found locked gates and an empty parking lot.

“I came here with like, I’ve been waiting here for like an hour and I came here with my camera and there’s like nothing,” Andrew Martinez-Lara, a senior at Hazen High School told KIRO 7.

The Renton School District made the announcement just after 6 p.m.

“This is also my first game so I was pretty excited to go here and I was disappointed when it got canceled,” said Adam Gomez, a senior at Hazen High School who showed up and found locked gates.

“You know what it is going to impact my walk, I’m probably not going to go walking now,” Cynthia Figueroa, a Renton resident, said.

“The combo is what I was fearing the most, one or the other but put them together and it’s little options of what to do,” Dwight Vatuyl said.

Also, wildfires to the north and east have also brought smoke and hazy skies to the Puget Sound region, and windy conditions and hot weather are raising concerns of high fire danger for this weekend.

Warm weather and smoke began to move in Friday. Poor air quality and hazy conditions are expected to get worse on Saturday before rebounding on Sunday.

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