Gasping through Smoke in Yambou
It’s 12:30 a.m., and I’ve just surrendered my fight for a peaceful night’s sleep to a coal pit that has been burning since June 22nd, 2023.
At 3 a.m., the rebellious, smokey air flows straight through my back window, even though it is closed. This coal hole has a battling mentality that has overcome Tropical Storm Bret and all of the subsequent waves. This coal hole appears to be a business that is constantly renewed and strengthened. At any given moment, there is frequently more than one active coal mine in the area. The owners return to their clean neighborhoods. I can’t phone my supervisor and notify him or her that I didn’t sleep and would be late for work. This is a residential neighborhood. There are times when I need to seek refuge in the home of a family member or a friend.
First and foremost, I fell in love with Yambou’s clean air, isolation, and lush land a million years ago. Now the constant knocking of smoke wakes me up, causing difficult breathing, itchy eyes, a sore throat, insomnia, and other symptoms. It’s as though I’m living in a horror film. When my neighbor was first diagnosed with cancer, the doctor asked her whether she smoked because she had spotted smoke on her lungs while analyzing her chest x-ray scans.
In addition to this immediate issue, soot from the Argyle asphalt plant crosses the Yambou residential river channel. I can’t hang my clothes outside any more. Asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, cancer, and other illnesses are common in the area. We are unable to breathe.
The toxic air rings our homes; even if you move to another room, it follows you. Your life is in danger. It lingers, stinks, creeps down your throat, intrudes on your privacy, and hampers productivity. It robs people of their normalcy and their ability to live healthy lives. When you are trapped by smoke, fungi grows and tiles can appear. The curtains smell like smoke. The porch is covered in soot dust, which colors the walls. It’s summer, and the heat is unpleasant when the home is closed due to smoke.
I am grateful that I am not in Haiti or Ukraine, but it is disheartening to pay a mortgage every month while being denied the basic right to clean air.
Who should I turn to for assistance? I thank God for the rain, but it is no match for the fire wizards of Yambou. Several calls and visits to the Mespo Police Station were made. The policemen were friendly and helpful. They agreed to notify their supervisors about the situation. I believe they visited the area on a few occasions. What precautions did they take? This information was not communicated to me. The coal mine is still operational.
In a dream, my late grandma from Diamond told me about her first coal pit. She had dug a coal hole on her property in Yambou’s river channel. She had a disagreement with the coal-pit setters. Because no one came to pick up the coal pit, it had burned for a year. Some of the residents protested, while others perished.
Who can we truly turn to for assistance?
Gasper
