Woman dies on first day of Burning Man festival, prompting police investigation
Authorities and the event organizers reported that a woman passed away over the weekend during the Burning Man arts festival. Although the circumstances surrounding her death were not immediately apparent, law enforcement has acknowledged that an inquiry is being conducted to find out what went wrong.
The woman, 39-year-old Kendra Frazer, was discovered unconscious by members of the festival’s emergency services team on Sunday morning at around 11:30 a.m., the first day of the week-long Burning Man event schedule, according to information released by the festival’s organizers on its website.
The lady was allegedly given life-saving treatments by the rescuers, but they eventually proved ineffective, and when sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene, they declared her dead.
Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen, whose jurisdiction is centered about 45 miles from the remote Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where Burning Man is held, said that several minutes after she was found to be unresponsive, Burning Man’s emergency dispatch alerted the sheriff’s office about “the potential death of a participant” at the festival.
The sheriff stated in a statement, “Deputies responded to the address provided and confirmed the death of a female participant.” He said that although an autopsy is being done to ascertain the official cause and manner of her death, the office’s probe into her death would stay open.
CBS News reached out to the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office for more information but has not received a response.
Both the sheriff and the festival organizers offered their condolences to the woman’s friends and family. Organizers said they “understand that this news will be difficult for many in our community” and noted that desert rangers would be available around the clock to provide peer support as would members of Burning Man’s crisis support team.
“The safety and well-being of our staff and community are paramount,” they said. “We are cooperating fully with local authorities as they investigate this incident. The Pershing County Sheriff’s office investigates all deaths that occur in its jurisdiction. Out of respect for the privacy of the grieving family, we will not be providing further details at this time.”
Every year, some 80,000 people go to the desert playa in northwest Nevada for Burning Man, a totally self-sustaining community centered mostly on art where participants construct a makeshift city and sleep together. Rather than calling Burning Man a festival, the organizers describe to it as “a city wherein almost everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience.” Every year at the conclusion of the event, the participants finally destroy the “city”.