Thick wildfire smoke led to hospitalizations and the interruption of an Ohio Army National Guard training exercise in northern Michigan, a spokeswoman said.
A dozen pregnant soldiers were sent home early and 40 other soldiers exhibiting respiratory symptoms were pulled from the field on July 15, said spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer.
The Ohio National Guard send N95 masks to Camp Grayling in Michigan and got oxygen tanks from local sources to help address the symptoms. A medical team on site treated some soldiers while others were transported to local hospitals. All soldiers have been discharged from the hospitals.
On July 17, when the air quality indexexceeded 500 − which is the highest on the index − all soldiers were pulled from their training exercises
in the field, Griesmer said. Michigan was under a statewide air quality alert due to smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Minnesota.
Roughly 3,000 soldiers were participating in a large exercise at Camp Grayling, which is about 45 minutes south of the Mackinac Bridge. Once the air quality improved, the exercise resumed, Griesmer said.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wildfire smoke hospitalizes Ohio National Guardsmen
