PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Officials in California say police and firefighters are responding to an explosion that rocked the city of Palm Springs.
On Saturday, Palm Springs city officials reported via social media that an explosion took place at 11 a.m. local time, urging residents to avoid the vicinity of North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive.
Spokesperson Nicole Lozano stated that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are en route to the location to investigate the incident.
In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Maher Abdallah, head of the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic where the blast occurred, confirmed that all staff members were unharmed and accounted for.
The explosion damaged the practice’s office space, where it conducts consultations with patients, but left the IVF lab and all of the stored embryos there unharmed.
“I really have no clue what happened,” Abdallah said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”
Nima Tabrizi, 37, of Santa Monica, said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.
“The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke,” Tabrizi said. “Crazy explosion. It felt like a bomb went off. … We went up to the scene, and we saw human remains.”
Palm Springs is a tony community in the desert about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles, known for upscale resorts and a history of celebrity residents.
