As long as we have this bad air quality situation,

[yorkster]

2. In our area of southern Maine, there have been countless

times where we had to quickly close the windows due to smoke or smell of smoke quickly filling the house. Usually it's someone's fire pit or grill. The prevailing wind brings it right to us. And usually it's not a light campfire smell, it's a strong reek of creosote or someone burning junk pine.

Nothing compared to what's going on now, but we got heat pumps/splitters so we could have windows closed and not cook, so to speak.

Fairly often, someone decides to have an outdoor fire
when it's already a hot, humid day just starting to cool down.

I agree to a point with what you're saying. But the campfire/backyard fire pit is a hard nut to crack.
Surely, there should environmental and air quality conditions that indicate a no -fire period.
I can't imagine what the current situation would be like if we were also in the middle of a real heat wave...

You're right - it's going to get worse. States and municipalities may need to take some unpopular but necessary decisions.