Poor Air Quality Closing San Jose State Among Other Colleges

SAN JOSE, CA -- San Jose State University’s campus will be closed Thursday and Friday due to unhealthy air quality levels in the San Francisco Bay Area caused by wildfires throughout the state.

"The health and well being of students, faculty and staff are of utmost importance to us; we encourage you to continue to heed the advice shared in our earlier campus message to stay safe over the next few days," President Mary A Papazian announced late Wednesday night.

Many colleges in the Bay Area are closed Thursday because of poor air quality resulting from mainly the Camp Fire in Butte County burning a few hundred miles north. Along with San Jose State, San Jose City College, Evergreen Valley College, the Community College Extension at Milpitas, and the SJECCD District Office will also close their doors throughout the weekend. Operations are expected to resume as normal on Monday.

In addition, California State University East Bay, San Francisco State University and Mills College in Oakland have shut their doors on Thursday.

The schools that remain open Thursday are keeping students inside for activities that would otherwise be done outdoors.

Stanford University remains open but the Dish and Matadero Trail in the Stanford foothills are being closed this afternoon due to the poor air quality and are anticipated to remain closed on Friday. Consult The Dish website for updates.

A Winter Spare the Air Alert remains in effect through Friday. It was extended from early this week due to the Camp Fire. In some instances, the air quality is so bad in the Bay Area, it's difficult to see any definition of hills or other landmarks. Motorists are driving with their headlights on over Altamont Pass.

The California Highway Patrol is receiving an increased number of calls from motorists who think they see a fire on the roadway -- fielding four in San Jose's jurisdiction on Thursday morning alone.

"It's either a culmination of the smoke in the air, or they thought they saw something," CHP San Jose spokesman Ross Lee said, further admitting Californians are hyper alert these days.

California's deadliest, most destructive wildfire in history is still burning. It has killed 56 people, displaced thousands of people and scarred 140,000 acres as of Thursday morning. The fire, which started at 6:29 a.m. Nov. 8, has destroyed more than 8,700 homes and 260 commercial buildings. It's only 40 percent contained. Full containment is expected on Nov. 30.

--Image via Sue Wood, Patch; Bay City News contributed to this report