Residents of the Coeur d’Alene area woke up Thursday morning to the distinct scent of burning timber. A thin cloak of smoke also temporarily enveloped the sky above the city’s main lake and its surrounding mountains. 

According to Coeur d’Alene Fire Marshal Craig Etherton and the National Weather Service in Spokane, recent wildfires north in Boundary County had pushed smoke south toward Kootenai County. 

The Turner Hill Fire north of Bonners Ferry is reported to have started shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday. By 6 p.m. Thursday, the fire was at 250 acres, prompting “Level 3” evacuation orders for residents near the fire’s vicinity.

Etherton also said that the Upper Smith Fire near the Canadian border, which as of 6 p.m. Thursday had reached nearly 600 acres, is contributing to the smoke seen and inhaled by Coeur d’Alene residents. According to watchduty.org, that fire is “burning on a north aspect in extremely steep and rugged terrain” and was first reported on July 8.

Meanwhile, two more wildfires started Thursday in Boundary County, according to Watch Duty. Relatively small in size, these include the Alpha Fire near the Montana border at 0.1 acres and the Dusty Fire just north of the border between Bonner and Boundary counties at 2 acres.

Currently, the air quality forecast for Coeur d’Alene has improved over the past day.

“It’s kind of lifting,” Etherton said. “But it’s still not great.”

According to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Coeur d’Alene’s air quality is deemed "acceptable" for this weekend. From a scale of 0-500, with 500 being the worst, the local air quality index is expected to range from 80 to 83.

“For some pollutants,” the Idaho DEQ states online, “there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.”