Fire interrupts KESQ morning newscast, damages studio equipment

A fire broke out at the studios of KESQ in the Palm Springs, California, market early Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, forcing the station off the air moments after its morning newscast began and prompting employees to evacuate the building.

View this post on Instagram

The fire was reported at 5:03 a.m. local time at the News Channel 3 facility on Dunham Way, according to Cal Fire’s Riverside County unit. Firefighters arriving at the scene discovered flames toward the rear of the building and quickly contained the blaze.

No injuries were reported, although the fire and subsequent activation of the building’s sprinkler system caused damage to equipment used in the station’s news production operations.

Chief meteorologist Patrick Evans said the station had been on the air for approximately 30 seconds when the fire alarm sounded.

In a video posted to Facebook, Evans described opening a door behind the news studio and discovering flames extending to the ceiling in an adjoining equipment room.

Advertisement

View this post on Instagram

Morning anchor Angela Chen provided another account on Instagram, describing flames and smoke coming from the room when Evans opened the door.

Fellow morning anchor Jeff Stahl grabbed a fire extinguisher and began spraying the flames before the building’s sprinkler system activated.

The fire was contained to equipment cages behind the main news studio, but smoke spread throughout the facility.

According to Evans, the sprinklers continued operating for approximately 45 minutes, soaking cameras and other broadcasting equipment.

The station’s morning newscast was interrupted, and KESQ switched to network programming while employees and emergency crews dealt with the fire.

“As a news team, we much prefer to report the news than to be a part of it,” Evans said in one of his Facebook updates.

Station works to restore broadcasting operations

KESQ initially said employees were working to restore affected systems and resume normal programming as quickly as possible.

The station subsequently returned to its regularly scheduled newscasts, reporting that firefighters had brought the flames under control quickly and that damage outside the news studio area was minimal.

The disruption affected a facility used to produce local news programming for multiple stations serving California’s Coachella Valley.

KESQ, an ABC affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Co., operates alongside sister stations KPSP-CD, the CBS affiliate; KDFX-CD, the Fox affiliate; KCWQ-LD, the CW affiliate; and KUNA-LD, the Telemundo affiliate.

The stations share production resources and facilities, making the fire a potential operational challenge beyond the primary KESQ newscast.

Advertisement

Evans said Thursday morning that the station was considering using a second studio elsewhere in the building to resume broadcasts.