Woman Shares Reality Inside NYC Flat As Smoke From Wildfires Blankets City

A woman has shared shocking footage from inside her New York City apartment as wildfires in Canada continue to impact air quality.

Huge plumes of thick smoke from wildfires raging across Canada have been blown across the East Coast, giving the New York City skyline a decidedly dystopian rust-orange tint.

Pictures taken from space by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 16 show the smoke engulfing New York state and Pennsylvania.

It is resulting in a serious deterioration in New York's air quality with the city ranking among the 12 worst in the world.

On the ground, several videos have surfaced on TikTok offering a glimpse of what it is like for those living in New York City at the moment. In one video, which has been watched more than 25 million times, a TikToker posting under the user name Amanda Marie offers a terrifying glimpse of what it is like to be stuck inside an apartment block during this time.The clip can be seen here.

In the video, the woman shows viewers around her apartment and that she has set up an air purifier and blocked the gap under her front door using a towel. According to the clip, it "smells horrible." As part of the video, the woman also offers a glimpse of the view, or rather lack of view, outside her window, commenting: "it's nothing but smoke."

The clip sparked concern among viewers with one writing "this is so scary." Another, meanwhile, commented: "climate change is terrifying" with a third adding: "If you go outside please wear a mask you do not want to breathe that in."

Another New Yorker, Max, who posts to TikTok under the handle theflyingtruck shared a clip from his apartment in Brooklyn showing that while all remains normal indoors, outside it is a different story.

In the video, Max takes viewers up to the rooftop of his apartment block to show the smokey orange hue that hangs over New York.

At one point, he turns the camera in the direction of where the skyline of New York would normally be visible. However, on this occasion there is nothing visible beyond a wall of colored smoke. "You can usually always see it," Max said on the video.

"Everything smells like burning wood and plastic combined," he said later in the clip. "It's really weird and it's been getting more and more red like this throughout the day."

A third video shows a woman, posting as ivangellys, sealing up her air conditioning unit and windows to combat the smoke. In the clip, she explains that when she woke, she immediately turned on all four of her air purifiers to the maximum setting.

She said each of the four machines began to flash red meaning the air quality in her apartment was "really bad." As with the other videos, the clip captured the strange fog of smoke covering New York.

In another video posted to TikTok, a woman called Annabel, posting as thehorsepurse, provided a comparison to show what the view normally looked like from her apartment, compared with how it is now.

While the blanket of smoke is expected to eventually lift, the New York City mayor has already warned the city's air quality emergency may not be the last time New Yorkers will experience an event like this, thanks to climate change.

Newsweek has contacted Amanda Marie, theflyingtruck, ivangellys and thehorsepurse for comment.