FROM LVA.COM
With the fire at the Monte Carlo on 1/25, what are some of the more
historic fires on the Strip?
A:
We received a number of questions about fires in Las Vegas prompted by
the Monte Carlo burn, so we're running a two-part series. Today's QoD
addresses historic casino fires, in chronological order starting from
the most recent; tomorrow's discusses procedures for securing the
casino in the event of a fire.
On February 18, 2003, someone dropped a lit cigarette into a laundry
chute at the Aladdin and started a smoky fire that necessitated the
evacuation of floors 21 and 22. A half-dozen guests were treated for
smoke inhalation at the scene; no one was transported to the
hospital.

Also in 2003, around 1 a.m. on May 29, the historic Moulin Rouge
casino was set ablaze by an arsonist; the resulting three-alarm fire
burned for hours, destroying the 90,000-square-foot building, though
not engaging the apartment house next door. A former employee of the
casino, who'd been thrown out of the place for drug dealing a month
earlier, admitted to planning the job, implicating a friend as the
firebug.

The year 1998 was a tough one for fires in Las Vegas. In April, a
small electrical fire at the Las Vegas Hilton, reportedly caused by an
overflowing toilet on the eighth floor (shorting out some wires and
sparking the fire), caused $1 million in damage. The fire was quickly
doused by the automatic sprinkler system, but the toilet ruined
several hundred thousands dollars worth of wiring.

Then in July, Palace Station experience two freak events, one right on
top of the other. During a violent thunderstorm, part of the roof
collapsed, deluging the casino with water. Our very own Jean Scott was
playing in the casino at the time and said, "There you are, playing
blackjack in the middle of a casino, in the middle of the desert, in
the middle of the summer, when a four-foot wave of water sweeps you
off your chair." Then, later that night as the fire department was
cleaning up the mess, lightning struck the 21st floor of the tower,
which caught fire. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured in
either occurrence; the water damage involved 60% of the casino, which
was closed for some weeks.

In June, a raging four-alarm fire destroyed the Gold Strike Hotel-
Casino near Boulder City. The fire started at 1 a.m. and spread
quickly; guests had to be awakened and evacuated by employees pounding
on doors. The roof of the casino quickly collapsed, rupturing the
sprinkler system, drenching the property with thousands of gallons of
water, and draining the hotel's water supply. Further problems with
water pressure and access hampered efforts to put out the fire, which
caused $30 million in damage. Miraculously again, no one was
injured.

Finally in 1998, a grease fire broke out at the Circus Circus
steakhouse. Many hundreds of people had to be evacuated from the
casino and the midway; no one was injured, but it caused $55,000 in
damage.

In late August 1993, the top of the Stratosphere tower caught fire
while it was under construction at the 510-foot level. Firefighters
could do little but watch as the three-alarm fire raged for three
hours, raining orange ashes and fireballs of construction lumber onto
the ground below. Hundreds of guests were evacuated from Vegas World.
Six years later, Bob Stupak, owner of Vegas World, reached a $1.1
million settlement with Perini, the tower construction company, over
the blaze, the cause of which was never determined.

In February 1981, a fire at the Las Vegas Hilton killed eight people
and injured 400. It was later determined that a hotel restaurant
employee deliberately set fire to a curtain on the eighth floor of the
hotel; the man was convicted of arson and is serving eight life terms
in prison.

The Hilton fire took place less than three months after the November
21, 1980, fire at the then-MGM Grand (now Bally's) that took the lives
of 87 people and injured nearly 800. That fire was by far the worst
disaster in Nevada history and the second-worst hotel fire in U.S.
history. (The first worst was Atlanta's Hotel Winecoff fire in 1946,
where 119 people died, almost half of the occupants. The Winecoff fire
was the deadliest hotel fire in the world for 25 years, until a fire
at the Taeyon'gak Hotel in Seoul, Korea, killed 166.) For the whole
story on the MGM Grand conflagration, see QoD 1/21/07.

In June 1960, the first resort-casino to be built on Highway 91 from
Los Angeles (now known as the Las Vegas Strip/Las Vegas Blvd. South),
the El Rancho Vegas, burned in a spectacular blaze so hot that it
melted front desk keys and silver-dollar tokens (some are on display
at UNLV's Special Collections). The wind-swept fire completely
destroyed the resort and a dramatic photo captured the El Rancho
Vegas' trademark windmill collapsing into the flames. Arson has been
suspected for 48 years, but no evidence of it was ever released; the
resort was never rebuilt and the property, at the corner of the Strip
and Sahara, remains mostly vacant to this day.

Finally, in 1943, the 12-year-old Meadows Hotel and Casino, built and
owned by the notorious Tony Cornero (see QoDs 5/6-7/06), burned down
in another suspected, but never proved, arson fire. The Las Vegas Fire
Department didn't respond to the alarm, claiming that the Meadows was
outside its jurisdiction (though some speculated that the LVFD had
been bought off).

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