PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Officials in California say police and firefighters are responding to an explosion that rocked the city of Palm Springs.
The city of Palm Springs reported on Saturday through a social media post that an explosion occurred at 11 a.m. local time. Residents were advised to steer clear of the vicinity around North Indian Canyon Drive near East Tachevah Drive.
According to spokesperson Nicole Lozano, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is dispatching investigators to the site to assist in determining the cause of the incident.
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who manages the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic where the explosion took place, informed The Associated Press during a phone interview that all his staff members were safe and had been 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.
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