An actress who grew up in Mapperley and now lives in New York has told how she was forced to stay in for days after a dense toxic smog from Canadian wildfires descended on the US city. Rachel Grant, who appeared as a Bond girl in the film Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan and starred in the BBC hospital drama Casualty, took the hazy skyline to be a sunrise at first.
She said: "We were in fact admiring the orange sky one morning thinking it was a really beautiful sunrise. Little did we know. I even took my dogs for a walk in it. Funny how our perspective changed once we knew.
"New York should have been bright blue sky and warm weather, instead we were living with a big hazy cloud over us. It did go away for a couple of days over the weekend but yesterday the air quality got worse again - today it appears to be better, but it could come back because the fires are still ongoing. So as much as it’s not as smoggy as it was, it is still lingering.
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"It was most strange to drive around and see it all. You could smell and taste the smoke everywhere and you could feel the stinging in your eyes if you were outside long enough."
The actress lives in New York with her husband and their daughter, two-year-old daughter Maya. Her niece Imogen Tooth, who lives in London, is doing an internship and is currently staying with them.
Rachel said: "My daughter’s school sent out an email on the second day saying all outdoor activities, such as PE were cancelled, and all windows and doors would be shut and access to the school would be restricted to limit the opening and closing of doors. Children had to come in wearing masks."
The actress had been due to do some work along one of the beaches, but decided not to take her daughter to school in the end. She added: "The thing is, there was no warning about this. We had it for almost a whole day before we heard anything and I read the news. I had heard there was a big fire in Canada. I suppose they didn’t know the smoke would come down here and affect so many of us.
"We have a garden where we live with bird feeders on the back porch. There were no birds coming to feed, so we wonder how this has affected the wildlife."
Free face masks were given out to people on the streets and householders were advised to put air purifiers on inside. Anyone suffering from asthma or other respiratory issues was told they must stay at home.
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