Water bidding groups monitor a wildfire during the Mosquito Fire in Foresthill, an unincorporated area of Placer County, California on September 13, 2022.
Josh Edelson | AFP | beautiful pictures
Like a big forest fire Over tens of thousands of acres in California over the past week, smoke and ash billowed into nearby towns including Sparks, home to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada.
Tesla is taking steps to shield employees from exposure to smoke from the wildfire – known as the Mosquito Fire – as much as possible, but the company has stopped shying away from workers.
According to an internal memo shared with CNBC, Tesla notified employees at the facility that the building’s heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system was set to “recirculation mode to limit control the amount of outside air drawn into the plant.”
The overall air quality around the Tesla facility was rated “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” on Thursday and Friday with about 57 micrograms of fine particulate matter per cubic meter of air, according to the report. US Air Quality Index.
When air quality is this bad, people of all ages should seriously limit outdoor activities and wear face masks outside to filter out smoke and other pollutants. They should also close their windows to keep pollution out of their homes and offices.
Nevada Gigafactory’s HVAC filters have been upgraded to MERV class 13 or higher in the past year to capture wildfire particles. Those filters have been replaced with new ones more often this year, Tesla told workers, and that will continue under smog conditions.
The area was also affected by wildfires and air pollution last year. From California Caldor Firefor example, burned more than 220,000 acres in 2021, destroying homes and land and resulting toxic air quality in surrounding areas including in Nevada.
According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), “climate change, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires not only in California but and all over the world.”
Workers who work in or regularly visit outdoor areas were asked to pick up N95 masks at an office in the Gigafactory, and were also tested for air quality levels this week.
As of the end of Friday, according to CalFire websitewith cooler weather forecast over the weekend that is expected to assist firefighters in their efforts to put out the blaze.
