Nine-year-old Carter Vigh was having a great day on July 11, visiting a water park, enjoying a picnic lunch and playing soccer with other kids at a day camp run by his mother, Amber Vigh.
At the time, wildfires were raging in parts of British Columbia, so Amber checked the air quality index on a weather app that morning to make sure it was safe for Carter, who had asthma, to play outside.
The air quality reading was fine, said Vigh, who lives in 100 Mile House in central British Columbia, but he didn’t know the reading was not local. The closest air quality monitoring station was in Williams Lake, nearly 100 kilometers away.
When smoke from the wildfires reached the 100 Mile House that afternoon, she ushered all the children inside, including Carter.
It wasn’t until Carter returned home on the couch in the early afternoon that he “started coughing like crazy,” Vigh said.
She and her husband gave Carter his asthma inhalers and tried to cool him down with a bath, but he got worse.
“We knew something terrible was wrong and he needed oxygen,” she said.
Carter later died in hospital of asthma exacerbated by wildfire smoke.
“I want people to realize that asthma can go from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye,” Vigh said in an interview.
He also wants people to know that “indoor air quality is not always a safe haven without air purifiers.”
“Honestly, we didn’t have one because it wasn’t something we really knew much about,” Vigh said.
That’s why the Vigh family started the Carter Project in partnership with the BC Lung Foundation.
On May 14, they will distribute 100 air quality monitors at 100 Mile House and teach people how to build their own air purifiers using box fans and HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) furnace filters.
Although they are starting with their hometown, their goal is to bring air quality monitors and filters to all communities in British Columbia as they face another wildfire season. Over time, they would like to expand the program to communities across the country, Vigh said.
The president and CEO of the BC Lung Foundation said that when Carter died, the tragedy made him realize his organization could do more to ensure people had the tools they needed to “learn about what’s in the air they breathe.” and be able to take action.”
“It’s very important to have (air quality) information about what’s happening in our own backyard,” Chris Lam said.
“Depending on how the wind is blowing that day, you can even divide 100 Mile House into six, seven or eight different regions where the air quality could be dramatically different.”
Equally crucial is making sure people have the ability to monitor and filter the air inside their homes, because harmful particles from wildfire smoke and other pollutants can enter, Lam said.
“We often think about the smoke outside,” he said.
“(But) we spend about 90 percent of our days indoors, whether in our homes, at work or at school,” he said.
“Understanding what’s in the air…and how that affects our indoor environments becomes very important.”
Dr. Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Environmental Physicians, called the Carter Project “amazing.”
“Now is exactly the right time, because all signs point to another summer of deadly smoke. And we have to start preparing now,” she said.
“Climate change is happening and we are going to have these wildfire smoke crises year after year. But we also have to put out the fire at its source and prevent the smoke from getting worse by reducing our use of fossil fuels,” said Lem, a family doctor in Vancouver who also works in rural and northern communities.
Governments must also step in and help protect people from poor air quality, Lem said.
Just as governments have funded home retrofit programs to help people reduce their carbon footprint, they should also consider subsidizing air filters to ensure everyone can breathe clean air indoors, he said.
Municipalities should also think about “clean air shelters” when local air pollution reaches a certain level, similar to cooling centers that open during heat waves, Lem said.
For Vigh, working to prevent other families from losing a loved one to wildfire smoke helps her cope with her grief.
“Carter would have been the kid who would have made a difference in this world if he had the chance,” he said.
“I’m proud that we can do this in his name and make a difference for him.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2024.
The Canadian Press health coverage is supported through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.