Firefighters escaped injury battling heavy smoke and fire conditions Monday at a building located on an abandoned Palm Springs golf course, the Palm Springs Fire Department reports.
Capt. Nathan Gunkel said in an interview with KESQ that the fire is believed to be of suspicious origin and the investigation will focus on how it could have sparked without electrical power. He did not shed any light on what may have been its cause.
According to an article by KESQ, the Palm Springs Fire Department got the report of the golf course fire at approximately 3 p.m. and responded to the Bel Air Greens, located on the 1000 block of S. El Cielo Road near E. Mesquite Avenue. They arrived to find heavy smoke and fire conditions already in progress. The captain told KESQ reporters that crews located no one in the building when they arrived; however, the site has been a haven for transients in the past, he said.
Abandoned since 2014, Bel Air Greens once served as a 35-acre golf course but these days it is eyed for a new housing development. In October 2021, the City of Palm Springs heard a proposal to convert the golf course into 71 single-family lots. The project site would be located north of Sonora Road, east of Farrell Drive, south of Sunny Dunes Road and west of El Cielo Road.
Although this golf course is no longer in use, homeowners there would have plenty of opportunities to hone their game, since the site lies adjacent to The Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort on the east and the Mesquite Country Club on the west and north. The northern part of the site would remain open as a desert greenway.
Also this week, a fire department report Jan. 2 on Twitter said, "Alert: Fire units are currently on scene of a commercial structure fire on the 1000 block of South El Cielo. No injuries at this time." Heavy smoke could be seen shooting up from the roof on the Twitter video with several trucks at the scene. No update had been provided on Twitter.