Fire destroys vacation rental in Indio

A short-term vacation rental was destroyed after catching on fire early Thursday morning.

According to a Cal Fire spokesperson, the fire was reported at 2:38 a.m. The home is located on 81000 block of Tranquility Drive, just around the corner of Avenue 49 and Madison Street in Indio.

The fire was contained at 4:50 a.m. but crews remained on scene throughout the afternoon to continue with the clean-up and investigation.

A cause of the fire has not been released by authorities.

A fire captain told News Channel 3 at the scene that the residents were able to get out of the home safely. The captain confirmed the residents were short term renters and the owner lives in Los Angeles.

Riverside County issued an order that limits short-term home rentals, hotels and motels to restrict business to novel coronavirus response only.

The order further states that no owner, tenant or marketing agent may rent or lease any short-term rental, vacation rental or timeshare.

The order was recently extended until June 19.

In letter, Indio's assistant city manager Rob Rockwell wrote, "any property found to violate this STR moratorium will be considered 'unregistered' and subject to citation and fines that begin at $1,500."

Tune in tonight at 5 & 6 p.m. as News Channel 3's Jake Ingrassia goes further in-depth on this fire and vacation rentals in Indio.