Sprinklers praised after two Strip fires - News

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Sep. 24, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Sprinklers praised after two Strip fires

By MAGGIE LILLIS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Two fires within 12 hours at separate hotel resorts on the Strip have local fire officials hailing the sprinkler systems that snuffed out flames before serious damage occurred.

"The hotels on the Las Vegas Strip are some of the safest places to stay," said Clark County Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison.

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Several people evacuated the Bellagio at about 5:50 a.m. Tuesday morning. One man was treated for burns to his lower arms when the mattress in his 26th-floor hotel room caught fire, possibly from a lit cigarette, Allison said.

A separate blaze on the 14th floor of the Venetian occurred at about 9:50 p.m. Monday in a mechanical room. Firefighters are unsure what sparked the fire but believe it started near a pile of large air filters.

No injuries were reported and no one was evacuated.

After the Bellagio blaze, the man in the room, who told authorities he wasn't smoking, was taken to University Medical Center for minor burns and smoke inhalation. Another person was taken to a local hospital for smoke inhalation and a few others were treated on-site for the same cause, Allison said.

The flames were contained to the bed and doused by the sprinkler system. Guests on the 26th floor voluntarily evacuated to a ballroom in the hotel resort, Allison said.

Although a damage amount hasn't been calculated, guests in about 45 rooms were relocated due to some smoke and water damage, Allison said.

Representatives of the resorts could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

In a 1980 fire at the former MGM Grand, now the site of Bally's, 87 people died and more than 600 were injured. The blaze was caused by an electrical fault. The fire prompted new rules for sprinkler systems and alarms in high-rises.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. Whistle-blower wrote on September 24, 2008 07:55 PM: Hey Boob, Freds not here. Put your blindfold back on and go back to work for the Building Department. When tourists cook, Fred will get back to you. Until then, play dead. BOB wrote on September 24, 2008 04:09 PM: Fred. Stop your whining already... Whistle-blower wrote on September 24, 2008 06:44 AM: "The Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip are SOME of the safest places to stay?" That's prety assuring Fire Dude. How about putting out a list of the Hotels on the Strip thta aren't part of your "SOME" list. We know that list exists based on the R.J.s investigation of the Harrah's Properties,(now Caesar's) and how they blatantly violated basic Fire Codes by not obtaining permits for renovations. The Rio, The Flamingo, Harrah's, Ceasars were all found in violation of following County Fire Code, once the County Building Department got slapped upside the head with the KESSLER REPORT. The one that details how simple "Pay-offs" made The Inspectors look the other way. Illegal Behavior that has gone unpunished to this day, by the man that heads that "Gang that looks the other way", RON LYNN. When the next Fire hits the Strip and Tourists get sizzled in their sleep because of this past ILLEGAL behavior that the County Commission not only ignores, but obviously supports, what will be the result? A Ghost Town. Who will be held responsible? RON LYNN? Why does he still have his job? The Safety Culture at the Building Department has been so erroded under his "blind eye" approach to Inspecting, that we can not only assume, but be rest assured, that somewhere in SOME of those other Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, there is a hidden "FUSE" that inevitebly will be lit. This is a Gambling Town. Do we really want to "Gamble on Safety" when it comes to Tourism? Did the Commissioners forget that they shelled out $75,000.00 of taxpayers money to get to the bottom of this disaster waiting to happen? Once they found the Source, the "BREACH of SECURITY" in the Chain of Command, weren't they supposed to Fix that? Fire it? What's up with that Valentine? What's Rory Reid thinking? Robert Wilson wrote on September 24, 2008 03:59 AM: Fire Sprinklers Save Lives and property. Most if not all commercial buildings are required by law to have a Fire Sprinkler system installed. It's a fact that 80% of fire deaths happen within the home. It's time to push our legislators to apply these same type ofrequirements for dwellings.