Poor air quality from Thermal mulch fire causes concerns

Air quality is still an issue from the mulch fire that began Wednesday morning in Thermal, especially for those living nearby.

“I just want better for my kids,” said Linda, resides a block away from Avenue 58 and Van Buren Blvd in Thermal

The smell of smoke is still in the air at Linda’s home. She says even her air conditioning unit was pulling the contaminated air into her home. 

“Sometimes I want to get out of here because it gets more… worse, the smoke," she said. "There’s no way to breathe with it, so we had to be inside the car or I had to go to my sister’s house to be safe.”

Just down the road, Roberto Ayala was feeling the impacts too.

“As someone who has asthma it really affects the way I breathe,” he said.

Medical experts say that people like Ayala, with pre-existing pulmonary, respiratory or cardiac problems are affected much worse.

“When people are closer to the fire area, they inhale it and it goes deep in the lungs," said Dr. Ziad Tannous, a pulmonologist at Desert Regional Medical Center. "Even healthy lungs get irritated and you get respiratory symptoms as it is. So let alone somebody with chronic pulmonary problems, they do get much worse symptoms as they get closer and closer to the fire area and also when the air quality gets affected."

For Ayala, this isn’t the first time he’s had to suffer in poor air quality. He wants that to change.

“Faster responses to situations like that and to decrease the risk of fires around here,” Ayala said.

Dr. Tannous says it’s bad timing, especially due to the surge of patients suffering from COVID-19 related pneumonia.

“Whether they actually have an active infection of corona or they are recovered from corona, they are probably more at risk to develop more symptoms and more severe symptoms as they are exposed to the smoke and the fumes and the gas and the particles closer to the smoke area,” Dr. Tannous said.

He says the first few days are critical and advises, especially those with pre-existing conditions, to stay inside as much as possible and monitor symptoms.

As of 7 p.m. on Thursday, the fire remains at 12.4 acres, but is now 84 contained.