It’s the kind of facility that wouldn’t normally be busy on a hot, summer day but these days Fun Bugs in Kelowna, an indoor playground for young children, is hopping.
“We’re booming,” Fun Bugs owner Lori Placide said. “We’re so much busier, people don’t want to be out in the smoke.”
Placide said that typically on a nice, summer day, she would see anywhere from five to ten children a day but since the smoke settled in the valley more than a week ago, that number has gone up significantly.
“50 to a 100 kids a day,” she said.
The Air Quality Health Index has been hovering around seven for the past week. That’s in the high risk category and has health officials advising people to limit their time outdoors.
“Everyone should be staying indoors not just those with medical chronic conditions but the population in general, try to avoid being outside,” Dr. Silvina Mema, a medical health officer for Interior Health, said.
The YMCA of Okanagan is also reporting a spike in patrons at all three of its facilities in Kelowna,
“At all of our centres we are seeing a higher drop-in rate and also just steadier numbers,” The Y’s marketing and communications manager Erica Hudson said. “So usually where our numbers would be a little less in the summer, it’s continued to be steady.”
Libraries like the downtown Kelowna branch are also seeing an increase in numbers, that’s believed to be the direct result of smoke.
“Right now it has just increased a little bit throughout all of our branches, it has increased quite a bit in the Kelowna branch,” Michal Utko, marketing and communications manager at Okanagan Regional Library, said. “Our statistics for the usage of computers and WIFI has increased dramatically as well.”
The weather forecast calls for the smoke to stick around again on Thursday.
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