The smoke from the B.C. wildfires got so bad in Alberta’s capital on Wednesday afternoon that the Edmonton Eskimos needed to move their practice indoors.
There’s now concerns that if conditions don’t improve, Saturday’s football game against the Montreal Alouettes may get cancelled.
“I would assume just on the fact that we were advised to not practise in it, that the league would look at that as an unsafe environment for us to play it,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “I’ll leave that to them, but we’ll show up ready to play and if we can’t, we can’t.”
A spokesperson for the CFL team said the final decision about whether they can play on Saturday falls to Eskimos president Len Rhodes, Alouettes president Mark Weightman and CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie.
That decision won’t be made until it’s clearer what the weather conditions will be.
“We are in touch with our weather experts who advise it remains too early to definitively gauge what conditions may be for Saturday’s game between the Eskimos and the Montreal Alouettes,” the CFL said in a Thursday statement. “The health and safety of our fans and players is our priority as we continue to assess the situation. In the meantime, we continue to prepare to host a fun evening for our fans and an important game for both teams.”
For now, Maas said he was happy the team was still able to get practice in.
“We want to be able to practise but have our guys stay healthy, so we moved it in and got some great work in today.”
WATCH BELOW: Witness!…how orange the skies are over Edmonton Wednesday morning.
Linebacker Adam Konar told 630 CHED he was pleased so see practice move inside. He suffers from asthma and was having a harder time outside.
“It’s pretty tough to breathe out there in the smoke, so to come in is a nice break on everyone’s lungs, especially for me.”
Konar said the air quality has been affecting his ability to breathe, but it’s something he’s able to manage.
“It’s nothing major, but I have to take a couple extra inhalers and I’m good to go.”
Edmonton reached a 10+ plus rating on the Air Quality Health Index on Wednesday afternoon. According to the index, that rating is supposed to continue overnight Wednesday, before improving slight to a 10 rating.
Alberta Health measures air quality on a scale of one to 10, with the higher the number signifiying the greater the health risk.
Global Edmonton’s chief meteorologist Jesse Beyer said there is a chance of showers Wednesday night, which would help clear out some of the smoke. However, with smoke covering the entire province, more would blow in quickly and won’t bring immediate relief.
It’s expected more of the smoke should clear up on Friday.
Smoke from the wildfires burning in British Columbia has been lingering in the Edmonton area since last week. On Tuesday, Environment Canada issued an air quality statement for the entire province. A similar warning was also in effect last week.