Community remembers historic Indio restaurant burned by fire
You may have seen black smoke rising out of Indio today, coming from a destructive fire at the vacant La Piñata restaurant building.
“A lot of us that grew up here in the valley spent a lot of time there in that restaurant and had experiences so it’s kind of a sad day,” said Mark Cuevas, a Coachella resident.
Members of the community stood in awe, some with their cell phones out, capturing the building enveloped in flames.
Former La Piñata employee Mario Sanchez watched it burn. He said he made many memories there before the restaurant closed a couple of years ago.
“This is a place I came to. I’m shocked. Seriously I’m like…wow,” Sanchez said. ” It makes me want to cry because I’ve known all the people that worked here, I knew the owner personally — nice family. That’s where I met my girlfriend. … It’s just a sad day.”
At its peak, more than 40 firefighters battled the blaze.
“The fire progressed rather rapidly in the attic space and with the compromise of the roof collapsing and so forth, we had to alter our tactics,” said Battalion Chief Bonifacio De la Cruz of Cal Fire Riverside County Fire Dept.
He was concerned about the fire spreading.
“We don’t know what the winds are going to do,” De la Cruz said. “If the palm trees were to catch on fire, it could potentially ignite some of the area combustibles: buildings, other trees and so forth.”
The blaze was contained by 10:00 a.m. Saturday. Its cause is still under investigation.
“Sad to see this place go the way it did and I’m just going to remember the good times I had in there,” Sanchez said.
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