![]() ![]() ![]() According to the Clark County Fire Department official report, an employee who was in the area where the fire originated an hour or two before the blaze broke out saw “nothing,” but two MGM employees reported smelling smoke and seeing a “haze” around an escalator adjacent to the area on the day before the fire. No one is certain exactly when the fire started, although it was reported to MGM security at 7:05 a.m., and the Clark County Fire Department received the call at 7:17 a.m. “The old saying is, a major disaster is a string of items, and if you break that string at any one point, you would have avoided that disaster,” says Nevada Fire Marshal Peter Mulvihill. And major changes came-not just in Las Vegas, but all over the country not just in casinos and hotel rooms, but in fire codes and insurance policies. By the time the sun set on November 21, 1980, 85 people were dead and more than 700 injured, and the once-luxurious casino had been reduced to a pile of smoldering cinders and melted polyurethane.Īs Las Vegas reeled from the tragedy, the city also began to take a hard look at the practical realities within our fantastical city. The MGM Grand fire put an end to the idea that our hedonistic paradise would be exempt from the kind of disasters that hit other major cities. It was all over in a few hours, but its impact lingers 35 years on. | Photo courtesy UNLV Special Collections
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |