Fire victims to get $440,000 left over from MGM settlement

"We think it's a very appropriate end to a very tragic situation," said Garth Winckler, president of the United Way of Southern Nevada.

Las Vegas attorney Will Kemp, liaison counsel for the Plaintiffs' Legal Committee, said the money will be transferred later this month or early next month from a court-administered trust fund to a newly created United Way Fire and Burn Victims Support Fund.

Kemp and New Orleans attorney John Cummings III, chairman of the Plaintiffs' Legal Committee, filed a motion earlier this year asking for a court order to transfer the money.

"Good cause exists for such an order because the amount of funds are much less than the costs of a proposed disbursement and, in any event, it would be impossible to find all of the plaintiffs at this point in time," the motion stated.

Senior U.S. District Judge Louis Bechtle of Philadelphia held a February hearing in Las Vegas before granting the request. He received no objections to the motion.

The November 1980 fire at the Strip hotel killed 87 people and injured hundreds of others. It also prompted 1,357 claims against 118 companies, which reached a $223 million settlement with the victims and their families.

The United Way, the Nevada Community Foundation, the University Medical Center Lions Burn Care Center and the Clark County chapter of the American Red Cross have agreed to administer the new fund, which will make annual distributions of 6 percent to 8 percent of the fund's assets.

Kemp said the charitable fund, which also will accept contributions, will help pay back the community for its assistance during and after the MGM fire.

"People forget how much the community responded to this," the attorney said. "Basically the whole community just jumped in and helped however they could, especially the support services."

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