‘Brutal’: Ontario outdoor workers stay home, others mask up amid wildfire smoke

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Outdoor workers donned masks, took more breaks or stayed home altogether Thursday as wildfire smoke continued to waft across Ontario and health officials raised concerns.

Environment Canada said the air quality in Toronto continues to be “very high risk,” with warnings in place from Thunder Bay to Windsor and Kingston. An orange air quality warning continued to blanket a wide swath of the province, signalling “very poor air quality,” the department said, as dozens of forest fires burn out of control across northwestern Ontario.

Chris Smith, who runs Toronto home building company Woodsmith Construction, said he’s cancelled work on two of his company’s four projects for the day, calling the weather “brutal.”

“My eyes were burning all day on the job sites yesterday. I had a massive headache at the time I came home,” he said.

Several workers left the site early on Wednesday, heeding Smith’s instructions: “If you started feeling light-headed in any way, head home or head inside.”

Now, jobs with work on siding and a porch and deck were pushed back to next week, while employees tasked with indoor work in an air-conditioned space carried on, he said.

However, landscaping labourer Andre Carreira says he and seven co-workers at Hi-Rise Garden continued to plant boxwood shrubs Thursday afternoon, working in the shade and wearing respirator masks.

“If any of the workers felt anything, they were told to stop, collect their breath, hydrate,” he said, standing beside his boss.

“I wouldn’t say it’s too bad; I wouldn’t say it’s causing any issues.”

Devastating wildfires have raised health concerns and caused event cancellations in communities across the province as a smoky orange haze lingered in the southern Ontario sky for another day.

Camp counsellors, lifeguards and other staff at many municipal programs and venues stayed home or changed plans mid-week.

The City of Toronto cancelled all municipal day camp field trips Wednesday and moved camp and daycare activities indoors Thursday. Outdoor swimming and wading pools remained closed, with the city’s air quality rating of 10-plus on Thursday afternoon marking the worst possible rating Environment Canada can assign.

Windsor closed its sports fields, parks and washrooms, while London postponed or delayed several outdoor events.

Thunder Bay has shuttered its outdoor pools, beaches and splash pads as well as golf courses and marina services, and kept park staff home though the green spaces remain open.

Winds out of the northwest could fan the flames of dozens of forest fires that have already devastated communities, including one fast-moving blaze that damaged and destroyed homes and buildings on Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, also known as Collins First Nation, north of Thunder Bay.

Some 15 communities in Ontario’s north have already started evacuations or begun to consider them, according to a letter from provincial Emergency Preparedness Minister Jill Dunlop to federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski.

Premier Doug Ford has said crews and aircraft are hard at work fighting more than 180 wildfires across northern Ontario, and the province will spare no expense in keeping people safe.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

— With files from Allison Jones and Kathryn Mannie in Toronto