Six unfinished houses destroyed by fire

A fire of suspicious origins that destroyed six homes under construction Monday night underscores the need for a new fire station in a far southwestern sector of Las Vegas.

Tonight, Clark County Fire Department officials will take their recommendation of a location for the latest station to be built using 1995 bond money before the Spring Valley Town Advisory Board.

They would like the station to be at El Capitan Way and Saddle Avenue -- near Flamingo Road and Durango Drive about a mile from Monday's fire.

"If the station had already been built where we will recommend, firefighters would have been at the scene of the fire in about one-third of the time it took them to get here," Capt. Larry Dau, logistics planner for the fire department, said at the scene of Monday's fire.

Department Spokesman Bob Leinbach said it took the first unit to arrive at the scene at Stoney Creek Drive and Park Street, south of Desert Inn Road, about nine minutes.

"We were about 30 seconds away from losing (an occupied) house," said Capt. Gina Geldbach-Hill.

Six houses being built by Lewis Homes were about 50 percent complete when fire broke out shortly before 8 p.m.

"They burned liked Christmas trees," said Scott Coutts, project superintendent for the builder.

Coutts said the homes were valued between $140,000 and $170,000 and were in the 30th day of construction of a 60-day construction time frame.

"We wrote off the houses under construction when we arrived on the scene," said Hill. "Our main effort was to save the other homes."

Firefighters immediately created a barrier between the six burning buildings and an occupied home on the west side of the construction site.

The heat was so intense it broke windows in buildings across the street on the north side of the flames.

"Firefighters took a beating but they jumped right in," Hill said.

The occupied home is owned by husband and wife Pat Segura and Carol Haxton, who moved here from Northern California in October.

They bought their home in December and moved in a month ago.

"We still haven't finished unpacking," said Segura, a retail manager for a drug store.

The couple said they had only minutes to flee their home after seeing the flames and feeling the heat, which broke windows and burned plastic blinds.

Segura said he managed to bring out two boxes of important papers, but that was it.

Besides the windows, there was some minor smoke damage, but otherwise their home was safe.

"It took six to eight minutes for fire to go through three of the unfinished houses," noted Segura.

The fire apparently started outside one of the unfinished houses, and once it caught the first one on fire it spread like a forest fire to the other buildings.

Leinbach said there have been several small fires set in the area in recent weeks, including one in a portable toilet and one in a Dumpster.

Leinbach said three alarms were turned in, but the third one was canceled.

There were no injuries.

Total estimated cost of the damage was more than $850,000, Leinbach said.

The Clark County Fire Department has been building a new station each year since the $10.5 million bond issue. Three more remain to be built using the 1995 money.

"We're proceeding along as fast as we can," said Leinbach. "The money has been earmarked for the next station, but we have to find the property, get it rezoned and buy it."

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