Spokane man Caleb Moon says he’s had enough with smoky skies from B.C.’s forest fires blanketing his city

Tariffs and a weak Canadian dollar may be stopping consumer products from crossing the B.C.-U.S. border, but such measures play no part when it comes to wildfire smoke.

Spokane resident Caleb Moon says he’s had enough with the smoky skies from B.C.’s forest fires blanketing the Washington city – and has a solution for clearing the air: fans, and a lot of them.

“To get rid of this smoke, we have to work together as a community,” Moon said in a Facebook event called Blow Spokane’s Smoke Away to Canada.

“After much deliberation and mathematical calculation, we have figured that it is absolutely possible for us to blow this smoke away with high-powered fans.”

Moon is calling for each and every one of the 550,000 residents in Spokane to place five box fans on their roofs starting Saturday, Aug. 25, at 3 p.m. until Sept.27. At an estimated six feet of air circulation per fan, he is convinced the smoke will head towards B.C.

“Turn your fans on to the highest setting, and aim them toward northeastern Canada. Team work makes the dream work. Let’s do this, Spokanites. Let’s send this smoke right back to those Canucks!”

Based on his calculations and the 1,100 people who say they’ll be taking part as of Tuesday morning, the smoke will only blow about 33,000 feet towards B.C. The area of Spokane is an estimated 1.6 billion square feet.

Plan met with criticism, laughs

Moon’s plan has been met with plenty of online criticism and doubt.

“Who needs a trade war with Canada when we can have a Smoke War! I will be up there next week for some recon on how big of a border wall we will need to block Canadian smoke. Might have to get the Space Force involved,” said Dave Ramsey.

But others are playing along.

“You need to get us Canadians to all turn our vacuums on at the same time. Teamwork is Dreamwork,” Bernie Fox wrote.

“This is the most awesome exchange of comments between Canadians and Americans I have ever witnessed on Facebook. Mostly hilarious,” Wesley Mahan said.

Meanwhile, if you’re not interested in the theory that box fans can push the smoke far enough, another Facebook user has started an event, for Tuesday, to simply throw rocks at the smoke.

@ashwadhwani

ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca

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