Crews battle Thousand Palms mulch fire, smoke impacting residents

People in Thousand Palms and across the valley were hit with plumes of heavy smoke spewing from the 20-acre Castillo Fire, which ignited Monday night in a mulch pule before spreading to a nursery's palm grove.

"Last night, I smelt it very strong," said Thousand Palms resident June Card. "Through the night, the smoke, you could smell it through your cooler vents. We had to turn it off."

Fire crews say smokey conditions are improved from Monday.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Don Camp said active flames were extinguished and the fire hasn't grown since Monday night.

"Most of the activity is deep in the mulch piles where we have pockets of fire and heat," Camp said. "We're using heavy equipment to pull the piles apart and then apply water to them."

Fire crews were working feverishly to beat high winds coming in.

"Winds 30 to 40 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 – we threw a lot of resources at the fire this morning to try to get this thing stamped down before those winds surfaced over the fire this afternoon," Camp said.

Residents say blowing dust is only making the smoky conditions worse – as community concerns grow about the winds carrying burning embers over containment lines.

"The dust is always bad in Thousand Palms and we have sand constantly but the smoke adds to it right now," Card said. "They cant get [the fire] out and they're still working on it as we're speaking so... could do a lot of damage. People ought to pay attention."

Winds were worsening as the evening progressed, though officials said the fire's forward spread had been stopped.