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San Francisco, CA - For more than 10 days, smoke from the Camp Fire in Butte County has left an thick layer of smoke throughout the Bay Area.
During that time, the air quality has ranged from Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups on the EPA air quality scale to Hazardous.
"It's a signal of what's coming in the future and we need to think about how we can address it," said Stephen Bediako, an Oakland resident who was out with friends on Lakeshore Ave. on Sunday night.
Bediako and many Bay Area residents have been staying in doors to avoid breathing toxic air that continues to choke the area.
After two weeks of wearing masks and avoiding the outdoors, some people have gone stir crazy and decided to throw caution to the wind.
There was no shortage of people walking around Lake Merritt with the faces covered in what has become an essential dress attire, but locals will tells you that lot more people would have been circling the lake on any other Sunday afternoon.
"I've been taking it easy (because) I don't want to exert myself," said Raphael Gavilanes. “I've read it's not a good idea”
The Oakland resident told us that from his perspective - the Bay Area's inconveniences are small when balanced against the loss of lives and homes in Butte County.
"We're lucky (because) the people that are living with the fire have real problems."
As the Bay Area headed into another week of bad air, reports of cancellations and closures continued to mount.
Santa Clara University officials decided that the air would be too bad to open campus on Monday Nov. 19th. and so did those with Foothill College & De Anza College .
San Francisco State University announced that classes will be canceled citing poor air quality.
At the University of the Pacific, classes were called off for Monday & Tuesday with a decision on Wednesday pending.
Officials for Moreau Catholic High school have decided to shut down for the Thanksgiving week.
Rick Perez, a 30-year-old Oakland resident, told us it’s the worse air he’s ever seen.
He’s been in doors with his children since the school district canceled classes on Friday.
"Yesterday, I noticed the visibility (was) the worse," he told us. "I was like WOW - at least from our house we could only see one block. It was pretty scary, really."
He ventured outdoors Sunday night, but opted to do something in doors by taking his wife to Forever Beauty & Nails on Lakeshore Avenue.
The owner of the salon told KTVU that there has been an uptick in traffic of people trying to stay out of the polluted air that has enveloped the Bay Area.
"Business is good,” said Lisa Truong. It's really bad so a lot of people are trying to stay indoors,"
There won't be as many extracurricular activities for those who will not have to attend classes on Monday.
The Oakland Zoo will remain closed Monday and so will Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose.
Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods and Fort Point are closed along with the Golden Gate Welcome Center.