New York | Smoke from Canadian wildfires continued to pour into the US East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks.

While Canadian officials asked other countries for additional help fighting more than 400 blazes nationwide that already have displaced 20,000 people, air quality with what the US rates as hazardous levels of pollution extended into central New York and northeastern Pennsylvania. Massive tongues of unhealthy air extended as far as North Carolina and Indiana, affecting millions of people.

AP