Gasp! Wildfires cause hacking and wheezing across the South

This photo made available by Don Cason shows his business, The Esmeralda Inn and Restaurant, which was evacuated due to the proximity of wildfires, Friday, Nov. 11, 2016 in Lake Lure, N.C. Cason had his 125-year-old inn in the western North Carolina mountains booked solid, rooms full and restaurant reservations lined up, for Veterans Day weekend. (Don Cason via AP)

ATLANTA – Smoke from dozens of wildfires burning across the Southeast has people coughing and wheezing, even in places like Atlanta that are far from the flames.

The blazes have cast a haze over the region.

Asthma sufferers and others with breathing problems are turning up at hospitals and doctors' waiting rooms. Schoolchildren are being kept inside at recess. And people whose lungs are easily irritated are being told to close the windows and run the air conditioner if they have one.

Lamont Hall of Atlanta and his twin daughters are under a doctor's orders to stay home from work and school. Hall says that they suffer from asthma and that the smoke makes their chests feel tight and their eyes burn. And they're 90 miles from the blaze burning in the Georgia mountains.