Fire breaks out at Empire Polo Grounds

A fire broke out around 2 a.m. Saturday morning at the Empire Polo Grounds, where weekend one of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival is underway.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU/status/1116995707246743552″,”author_name”:”CAL FIRE Riverside”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Outside Fire – RPT@ 2:06 am Empire Polo Grounds 81000 blk of Ave 51, in Indio. 4 ENG, 2 BC. FFs responded to reports of a fire Mobile Shower Unit on fire. Upon arrival the shower unit was fully involved, near center of venue. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CampIncident?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CampIncident&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– CAL FIRE Riverside (@CALFIRERRU) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU/status/1116995707246743552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 13, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

CAL FIRE tweeted that two mobile shower units were on fire at Lot 8 storage area. They later confirmed one of the two trailers was destroyed, and the other was damaged.

One camper who saw the flames says it was an unexpected sight.

“A lot of smoke up in the air. One of the shower things was on fire. No one had any idea what was going on,” Jake Strassner, who was visiting from Los Angeles, said.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU/status/1116998501144190976″,”author_name”:”CAL FIRE Riverside”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CampIncident?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CampIncident&#lt;/a&#gt; [UPDATE] 2:28 am – Fire Contained. Mobile Shower Unit in Lot 8 Storage Area. Total of 2 trailers involved. 1 damaged, 1 destroyed. No reported injuries to fire personnel or civilians. Fire crews will remain on scene for 1 hour for overhaul. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Coachella?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#Coachella&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– CAL FIRE Riverside (@CALFIRERRU) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CALFIRERRU/status/1116998501144190976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 13, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

CAL FIRE contained the fire around 2:30 am. There are no reports of injuries, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The fire didn’t appear to affect festival operations too much with people still able to get in and out of the Empire Polo Grounds with no issues and all performers still playing on schedule. It did inconvenience some campers looking to take showers.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1117159927569502208″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;This is what the burned trailer looks like from the &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Coachella?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#Coachella&#lt;/a&#gt; festival site after a fire that happened this morning at the shower trailers. Happened after the first night of the festival. This photo was taken by a camper. Credit: Derek Rahe. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/Roxof1ihq2″&#gt;pic.twitter.com/Roxof1ihq2&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1117159927569502208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 13, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

“We had to walk 30 minutes to the next shower spot and it was so full of people, we stood in line for like 25 minutes and it didn’t move at all,” Andrea Love, who traveled from San Francisco, said.

We did reach out to Goldenvoice, the festival organizer, for comment but haven’t heard back.

Stay with News Channel 3 for new developments.