Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

One killed in late-night house fire near downtown Las Vegas

Updated Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 2:16 p.m.

One person died and another was injured in a house fire Wednesday night caused by careless smoking, Las Vegas fire officials said.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said the blaze started about 11 p.m. at a house at 1204 W. Washington Ave., near J Street.

Metro Police officers arrived first and found a woman trapped in the house near a locked front door covered with bars.

Police cut the bars to rescue the woman, but a man remained inside the house, Szymanski said.

Firefighters told the man to find a room where the flames had not spread and to stay there while they cut through the barred windows, but the man didn’t listen, Szymanski said.

He left the room and firefighters lost sight of him, Szymanski said. By the time they were able to get into the house, the man was dead, he said.

The woman rescued from the house and a police officer were transported to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.

The flames gutted the house and caused about $80,000 damage. Fire investigators determined that the fire was the result of careless smoking and started on a bed, Szymanski said.

The fire remains under investigation. It resulted in the first fire fatality in Las Vegas this year.

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