Hermits Peak is one of Alex Huffman’s favorite hikes in the world.

He grew up and spends time in the mountains outside of Las Vegas in northern New Mexico. His family has had a cabin in nearby Gallinas Canyon since before he was born.

“Some of my earliest memories are there,” he said. “That’s where I caught my first fish.”

He has been watching the daily updates on the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire and said it’s very likely his family’s cabin is in the burn area.

As of Tuesday, seven large wildfires were burning across New Mexico, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. On Wednesday afternoon, wind carried smoke from wildfires in northern New Mexico all the way into the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, and into eastern Colorado, according to the Forest Service’s fire and smoke map.

Huffman has been around enough wildfires to know smoke inhalation can be horrible.

He is an aerosol scientist and associate professor of chemistry at the University of Denver. He keeps thinking about what he could do to help, he said. He can’t come down and fight the fires, so instead, he’s trying to raise awareness about smoke inhalation, hoping people can use the resources they may already have.

N95 masks are a key piece of the fight against particle inhalation, whether it be from respiratory aerosols and things like coronavirus, or wildfire smoke.

Not long ago, the federal government sent a bunch of N95s to communities across the country.

However, reached by phone on Wednesday afternoon, staff at the Del Norte Pharmacy of Las Vegas said they were out of the free N95 masks. No other location in Las Vegas is listed on the CDC’s map of places where the government shipped N95s.

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