Canadian Wildfire Smoke

[Richard B the EMT]

A few years ago, several of our Australian and/or New Zealand members were involved in a major wildfire in Australia, that lasted for weeks.  

My question is, did the smoke cause orange skies and major air pollution reports downwind from the fires, hundreds of miles/kilometers away like the North Eastern United States is now being subjected to?

I only ask, as for the roughly last 48 hours, my New York City is having the worst unhealthy air pollution we've had, since 1965-1966. Sky literally is orange, and overall visibility extremely reduced.