Wildfire Latest: Wyden Proposes Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act

PORTLAND, OR – With wildfires becoming an increasingly large problem in Oregon and the rest of the West, more people are being forced to flee their homes because of choking smoke. Oregon's senior senator, Ron Wyden, wants to help those people.

Wyden was at Portland's Fire Station 1 to discuss "The Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act."

The bill would allow people people forced out of their homes by smoke to apply for aid under a FEMA program that offers housing aid to people who can't return home after a disaster.

"(People) breathing unhealthy air clogged by wildfire smoke for weeks on end know these blazes are disasters when they’re driven from their homes to seek pockets of clean air," Wyden said. Get all the latest information on what's happening in your community by signing up for Patch's newsletters and breaking news alerts.

"Whether it’s children suffering from asthma or seniors needing respirators to breathe, all clean air refugees deserve the same consideration as other disaster victims forced to seek temporary shelter."

Under Wyden's bill, to be eligible for the funds, people would have to live in an area where the air quality index is considered to be unhealthy for at least three straight days because of a wildfire that has been declared a major disaster either by the president or the governor of the affected state.

The bill would not require any additional funding, Wyden says.

"It does not authorize any additional funding," he said. "It just treats wildfires as the natural disasters they are."

Wyden says that wildfire season in the West is now 100 days longer than it used to be.

No hearings have yet been scheduled on the legislation.

Photo via Hank Stern/Wyden's office.