Cause unknown in Gold Strike fire

As the final hot spots from the Gold Strike fire died out Tuesday, Clark County fire investigators remained to try to determine what started the blaze.

More than 100 firefighters battled the fire that destroyed the casino portion of the 17-story hotel, leaving the tower standing but damaged by smoke. No one was injured in the fire that started at 1:20 a.m. and burned throughout the morning.

Hotel employees evacuated guests after fire sprinklers and alarms failed to go off. Guests had to escape through smoke-filled halls and stairways. The resort was regularly inspected under 21-year-old safety code standards, which are not as stringent as today's county and state standards.

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Steve La-Sky said the cause of Tuesday's fire, which resulted in $20 million to $30 million in damage to the 40-year-old resort, has not yet been determined.

Meanwhile, an official of the roofing company that had been working Monday afternoon at the resort on the edge of Boulder City about 10 hours before the fire started, said equipment and materials left by his workers at the site could not have caused the pre-dawn four-alarm blaze, as some firefighters at first suspected.

La-Sky said the department had brought in Josie, a specially trained yellow Labrador retriever adept at finding the origins of fires, to aid in their investigation.

Although the hotel was saved and remains structurally sound, it will remain closed while the casino is rebuilt, resort officials said.

As with the fire at the MGM Grand hotel-casino on Nov. 21, 1980, a blaze that killed more than 70 people and injured hundreds, the interior of the casino itself fueled the 1,300-degree flames, including plastic parts from the Gold Strike's slot machines, carpet and tabletop fabric.

Unlike the worst fire in Las Vegas history at the Strip resort now called Bally's, however, there were no casualties at the Gold Strike.

"The response teams acted professionally, our employees followed fire procedures and, as a result, there were no injuries, which we are grateful for," David Belding, co-owner of the Gold Strike, said.

"We will rebuild, and we will rebuild quickly."

Investigators have determined that the most probable area of origin for the blaze was the exterior wall west of the registration desk, La-Sky said, noting that roofing materials stacked in the area was ignited.

"The fire traveled up the wall and into the attic space above the (internal) sprinkler system," La-Sky said.

Dennis Conway, co-owner of Commercial Roofers Inc., of Las Vegas, one of the city's largest roofing companies and the contractor for the Gold Strike job, said his company followed all safety and cleanup procedures.

"The fire started in an area where we were not even working -- we had completed that part of the job two weeks ago and were on the other side from where the fire started," Conway said, noting that the Gold Strike job was 80 percent complete.

Conway and La-Sky said asphalt plugs burned near the site. Conway said they would have burned like anything else in that area simply because of the engulfing nature of the fire.

"It (the materials) would not have caught fire if someone just threw a cigarette on it," he said.

Clark County Deputy Fire Marshal John Hall said there is no law or fire code against stacking roofing materials at the base of a building.

Nevertheless, he said, it was not a very good idea to store large quantities of such materials so close to a structure.

"Common sense should rule in matters like this," Hall, a former inspector, said. "The code book isn't filled with references to what should be common-sense matters."

Hall prefaced his comments by saying he did not personally inspect the Gold Strike fire site and did not know what quantity of roofing materials was in the area of the origin of the fire.

"Certainly it would have been better if such materials were stored 10 feet away and not under an overhang," he said. "If I had been out to inspect it and seen large amounts of tar paper -- more than one or two rolls -- I would have had them move it."

Conway said earlier speculation that his company's tar kettle had exploded were inaccurate. The kettle was parked just feet from where witnesses heard an explosion before the fire started. And witnesses told authorities they had smelled tar in the area late Monday afternoon.

"Our kettle was charred and the wheels were burned off, but it did not blow up," Conway said. "Also, the propane tank (the source of power for the machinery) was removed from the kettle and taken back to our yard when we left at 3:30 p.m. (Monday)."

Two empty small propane tanks were discovered near the kettle. They, too, were charred but had not exploded, Conway said.

He said his workers had removed all rubbish from the area and, as part of his daily routine, the foreman had inspected the site before the crew left.

Conway said that while the asphalt material on the roof was flammable, the fiberglass cap sheet, which made up the majority of the roofing materials and covered the asphalt, was not flammable.

During the battle to bring the blaze under control, firefighters relied on a million-gallon water tank on the property, along with water they carried in their trucks and a six-inch water line from Boulder City.

La-Sky said the million-gallon tank was emptied in the first two hours. Later, with the small water line as their only source, firefighters were hindered by low water pressure, but they still managed to drain more than 500,000 gallons from it.

"We were hindered most during the mop-up phase when we'd have to stop and wait for the water pressure to build back up," La-Sky said. "By then, the fire was under control."

Area resorts such as Sam's Town and the Monte Carlo provided rooms for the displaced Gold Strike guests, La-Sky said.

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