Schools near Hazen Fire keep students indoors amid toxic smoke concerns
On Wednesday, a fire exploded sometime after 4 p.m. in a railroad tie yard in the area of Hazen, approximately 12 miles outside Fernley.
The fire has continued to burn, with efforts made by first responders to keep the fire from jumping outside its current perimeter.
While the fire itself is troubling, what nearby residents are concerned about is the huge column of black smoke that has continued to grow.
Railroad ties are generally treated with toxic chemicals such as creosote, which creates hazardous fumes when burned.
Wednesday night, officials cautioned nearby residents to stay indoors to avoid the smoke.
On Thursday, schools remained open but have elected to keep students indoors due to the potential hazards of the smoke.
The following was released by the Churchill County School District:
All ChurchillCSD schools will be open today with some added precautions in place to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff. We understand our families count on us to provide a safe and supervised environment. We will keep all activities indoors during the school day and monitor outdoor afterschool activities (announcement later today on those). We will ask our staff to minimize the opening and closing of doors and windows.
Parents and students-please do not arrive too early at bus stops and please do not arrive at school before the scheduled time for elementary and breakfast time at middle and high school (7:50) as we have a limited capacity to house MS and HS students indoors under supervision before that time. We will also be limiting outdoor physical activities for students and keeping them inside for recess and lunch. Parents, please consider driving your walking students to school if possible today.
We appreciate that with this potentially health-impacting air quality that some families will want to keep their children at home indoors. Students who are absent today will be excused but should check in with their teachers for makeup work.
We will work in conjunction with the county and NAS Fallon's air quality alerts along with those from IQAir.com and AirNow.gov but know these sites have limited air quality stations for accurate readings. We will keep everyone posted if anything changes.
We will continue to update on the fire in Hazen as information becomes available.