Minnesota emergency rooms see uptick in patients due to wildfire smoke

Kim Hyatt and Jeremy Olson, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 4, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — Canadian wildfire smoke has become so intense that even young, healthy Minnesotans are experiencing symptoms similar to allergies.

“This morning I woke up and I was just like, oh, I have COVID,” said Cameron Dailey-Ruddy, 34, of Minneapolis.

He took two COVID tests Tuesday morning — both negative — and everyone at his staff meeting reported sore throats and headaches. He realized the unhealthy air spanning Minnesota made him sick: the equivalent, he said, of “breathing in exhaust fumes.”

“It’s so hard to shift your mindset ... It should be treated like a thunderstorm or a tornado and shelter in place,” he said, instead of thinking “it tastes weird outside” and going about life as normal.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said the plume of wildfire smoke that hit the state this week is unprecedented in its timing and severity.

“This is the type of wildfire intensity that you would expect probably in July or August,” said David Brown, air quality meteorologist with the MPCA. “It’s possible that some people could still be getting caught off guard this early.”

Some hospitals in Minnesota are seeing more patients experiencing complications from the smoke, starting in the northwestern part of the state and moving south.

The ER at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center saw an increase Sunday and Monday in “respiratory and cardiac visits due to effects of the smoke,” said Jillian Johnson, spokesperson for Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota.

At Children’s Minnesota primary care clinics in the metro area, more kids were brought in Monday and Tuesday with asthma symptoms.

“This has included patients who rarely have asthma exacerbations but seem to currently have symptoms triggered by the air quality changes,” spokesperson Nick Petersen said in a statement.

Other metro-area hospitals said it could be days before patients can no longer tolerate or manage breathlessness on their own.

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