{"id":106255,"date":"2019-06-04T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T15:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=106255"},"modified":"2019-06-04T12:29:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T19:29:32","slug":"arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Pechanga Casino Fire Injures Three, Arson Ruled Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fire at California\u2019s largest casino, the Pechanga Resort & Casino<\/a>, on Monday resulted in three injuries and the entire evacuation of a hotel tower, according to local news reports.<\/p>\n

\"Pechanga\"
Three people were hospitalized following the Pechanga blaze. Fire fighters offered no word on what might have triggered the fire, although an arson specialist has been investigating the scene. (Image: Fox 11 Los Angeles)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pechanga Fire Department said the blaze broke out at around midday on the first floor in the elevator portal of the resort\u2019s original hotel tower, causing the evacuation of the tower\u2019s 517 rooms.<\/p>\n

The three injured guests were hospitalized, one with burn injuries and two suffering from smoke inhalation. It is not known whether anyone was in the elevator at the time the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

Opened in 2002, the tribal casino has 200,000 square-foot casino floor, which makes it not just the largest in California but among the largest in the US in terms of gaming space, eclipsing all Las Vegas properties.<\/p>\n

Hundreds Evacuated<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fire chief Jason Keeling said had called for assistance from an arson investigator, but an update from Pechanga on Tuesday confirmed the fire department had ruled out foul play.<\/p>\n

At approximately 11:30 a.m., a fire broke out in a hotel elevator portal in the original tower of the Pechanga Resort Casino,\u201d Pechanga spokeswoman Ciara Green told The Press-Enterprise<\/em> in an email. \u201cThe Pechanga Fire Department immediately responded and knocked the fire down.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Green added that all staff and guests had been evacuated to the property\u2019s ballroom \u201cout of an abundance of caution,\u201d where they were offered food and drink, before being escorted back to their rooms at around 5 p.m. by security.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople went back up through service elevators,\u201d Green said. \u201cRight now, crews are working on getting half of our elevators in Tower One working.\u201d<\/p>\n

One witness who spoke to The Press-Enterprise<\/em> said a man being treated for smoke inhalation by an ambulance crew told her he had exited his hotel room to find the corridor filled with smoke and had to crawl on his hands and knees to find the stairway.<\/p>\n

Fire-Proofing Casinos<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Large casinos are generally high-rise, which present challenges to architects when designing fire-resistant structures. Nevertheless, these days, fatalities from casino fires<\/a> are rare. Lessons have been learned since the early eighties when two of the most notorious such tragedies occurred.<\/p>\n

In 1980, an electrical fault in a deli on the ground floor of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, now Bally\u2019s, caused a blaze that killed 87 people and injured 700 more. It was the third-worst hotel fire in US history.<\/p>\n

A year later, the upper floors of the Las Vegas Hilton became engulfed in a fire that killed eight and injured over 200 others. Philip Cline, a busboy, was later charged with murder and arson and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

Such incidents, along with regulations imposed after 9\/11, mean high-rise buildings are now constructed with additional stairs and fortified elevators, with more stringent fireproofing of structural elements to minimize risk.<\/p>\n

This article was updated Tuesday to reflect that the Fire Department has since confirmed arson is not believed to have been involved. The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fire at California\u2019s largest casino, the Pechanga Resort & Casino, on Monday resulted in three injuries and the entire evacuation of a hotel tower, according to local news reports. The Pechanga Fire Department said the blaze broke out at around midday on the first floor in the elevator portal of the resort\u2019s original hotel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":106257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nArson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-04T15:12:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-04T19:29:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/\",\"name\":\"Arson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-04T15:12:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-04T19:29:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"Three people were hospitalized following the Pechanga blaze. Fire fighters offered no clue on what triggered the fire, although an arson specialist has been investigated the scene. (Image: Fox 11 Los Angeles)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tribal Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Pechanga Casino Fire Injures Three, Arson Ruled Out\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Arson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three","description":"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Arson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three","og_description":"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2019-06-04T15:12:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-04T19:29:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/","name":"Arson \u2018Not Ruled Out\u2019 in Pechanga Casino Fire That Injured Three","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg","datePublished":"2019-06-04T15:12:09+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-04T19:29:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Pechanga Resort & Casino, fire injures three and causes mass evacuation of California\u2019s largest casino. Arson not ruled out.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Pechanga_Casino_in_Temecula_fire_0_7348938_ver1.0_1280_720.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"Three people were hospitalized following the Pechanga blaze. Fire fighters offered no clue on what triggered the fire, although an arson specialist has been investigated the scene. (Image: Fox 11 Los Angeles)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/arson-not-ruled-out-in-pechanga-casino-fire-that-injured-three\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tribal Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/tribal-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Pechanga Casino Fire Injures Three, Arson Ruled Out"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}