Residents react to evacuation and shelter in place orders from Castillo Fire
The 20 acre fire was first reported shortly after 6:30 p.m. off the 29000 block of Calle Castillo Lane according to Riverside County Fire Department.
Some residents were under an evacuation order up until Tuesday evening.
Shortly after flames were reported along Calle Castillo Lane neighbors tried to make sense of the commotion.
Ed Zachowski lives in the home closest to where the fire started.
He tells me smokes around his home first caught his attention, then he saw flames towering over neighboring palm trees by the mulch dispensary area.
"Police came and said that we're suggesting that you evacuate," says Zachowski.
Another resident in the area, Jim Capps, was working in Van Nuys last night.
He rushed to Thousand Palms on his motorcycle after receiving an alert from his home security system, showing that police were at his door.
Those public service alerts were the source of some confusion Monday evening leading up to midday Tuesday.
People told us they received the alerts, but some of them were delayed.
I spoke to the Riverside County Emergency Management Department, who explained why this may have happened.
Shane Reichardt, PIO for the RivCo EMD, says, "The cell tower and the way that the service handles that message is, if somebody were outside the area initially and then came into an area where an alert has been issued that message is queued up. As people enter that area or transition to that area, a lot of times they will get that message and it may be delayed.”
Because Public Safety Alerts are dependent on someone's proximity to a cell phone tower and their carrier, officials recommend that people go to RivCoReady.Org/AlertRivCo
There you can sign up for alerts that will come directly to your mobile phone based off of your address and location.
"If there's something happening in your home or in your neighborhood, and you are not at home, so you're at work, you're visiting friends, you're outside that area, you will get that alert. And that will tell you that you may not be able to go home if there's evacuations that are ordered for that area," says Reichardt.
Get more details on the Castillo Fire here.
