Attendees respond to incoming rain at this year’s Burning Man festival.Photo:Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty
Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty
The cause of death for the 32-year-old man who died at Burning Man this year has been revealed.
Leon Reece was found unresponsivein Nevada’s Black Rock Desert on Sept. 1 around 6:24 p.m. local time as the area was inundated with rain, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said in a statement at the time, perThe Daily Beast,The New York Postand theReno Gazette-Journal.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE Wednesday, the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office said the manner of Reece’s death was an accident.
“His cause of death was acute cocaine, ethanol and 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine [also known as Ecstasy, MDMA or Molly] toxicity,” per the medical examiner’s office.
“Due to the unusual rain event happening on the Playa, access to the area and investigative efforts were delayed,” Allen said.
This year’s festival faced serious setbacks as the Black Rock Desert area, where it’s annually held, received between two to three months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours between Sept. 1 and 2,CNNreported.
Attendees at this year’s Burning Man festival walk through mud in the desert.Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty
The festival attracts thousands of attendees every year. According toTravel Nevada, more than 70,000 people attend Burning Man annually.
The festivalwebsitedescribes the event as “a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression and self-reliance.”
As a result of the extreme rainfall, thousands of people wereleft stranded in the desert area. The event organizersurgedpeople to “conserve food, water and fuel and shelter in a warm, safe space” as flooding interrupted the festival.
Driving was not permitted, aside from emergency vehicles.
First-time attendee Hannah Burhorn toldCNNthat the desert sand turned into a thick mud as a result of the excessive rain, making things even more complicated.
“It’s unavoidable at this point,” Burhorn said. “It’s in the bed of the truck, inside the truck. People have tried to bike through it and have gotten stuck because it’s about ankle deep.”
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Attendees watching the burning of The Chapel of Babel, an annual event hosted at the Burning Man festival each year.Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty
On Sept. 4, “exodus operations” began around 2 p.m. local time in the desert area, according to a festivalupdateshared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A major standstill quickly developed as thousands of people attempted to leave the festival. By 9 p.m., the wait time to exit was “7 hours and climbing,” the festival’s official channels posted at the time.
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source: people.com
