Several wildfires in the Southern California region, including the Line Fire, Bridge Fire, and Airport Fire, began affecting the air quality at Rancho Cucamonga High School on Monday, Sept. 9 – causing the district to stop outside athletic and physical education activities.

At the beginning of the week, students walked around the open-air campus as ash fell from the ground from the nearby fires. On Monday, the air quality, as measured by the South COast Air Quality Management District, was between 150-180, indicating an unhealthy air quality. With the poor air quality, the district halted all outside sports and physical education activities.

The only RCHS sport to continue with their regular games was girls volleyball.

The first fire to break out was the Line Fire in Highland, California in San Bernardino County on Thursday, Sept. 5. That was followed by the Bridge Fire, which broke out in the San Gabriel mountains on Sunday, Sept. 8, and then the Airport Fire in Trabuco Canyon on Monday, Sept. 9.

During the inclement weather caused by the poor air quality, students in P.E. stayed inside the gym. On Monday. freshman Delaney Simpson said she has P.E. in the gym.

“We did stretches and then did free play,” Simpson said.

Similarly, junior and baseball player Jared Mark said his baseball practice was affected by the poor air quality.

According to Mark, the team had to “just stay in [the coach’s] class.”

With the poor air quality, some school districts including the Redlands School District and Beaumont School District closed their campuses.

However, being that Rancho Cucamonga is farther away than the location of the fires, RCHS and all schools in the Chaffey Joint Union School District remained open.

While all three fires still remain active, the air quality at RCHS improved enough on Wednesday, Sept. 11 to allow for sports and physical education activities to resume outside.