3-alarm blaze guts NLV warehouse

Cathy Scott

Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

It took firefighters an hour to put out a three-alarm blaze at a North Las Vegas warehouse that investigators say started from a makeshift barbecue.

Workers at Jet Concrete Inc. at 112 W. Brooks Ave. fired up wood chips inside a 55-gallon drum Monday in which to cook a barbecued lunch, said North Las Vegas Fire Marshal Joe Skaarup.

But by 11:45 a.m. the flames from the barbecue had spread to nearby stacks of wooden palettes 10 feet away, he said. Behind the palettes was a large shed used by Jet Concrete as a warehouse for its concrete bagging plant.

Winds whipped the fire through the warehouse, burning hundreds of palettes and paper bagging materials, Skaarup said. Also inside was a forklift with a gasoline tank.

Seventeen fire units and 68 firefighters from the North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Clark County fire departments fought the blaze for more than an hour before it was extinguished, Skaarup said. Damage was estimated at $250,000, a fire department spokeswoman said today.

Workers in the industrial area near Commerce Street and Cheyenne Avenue were evacuated. No injuries were reported.

Firefighters watched the location through the night to make sure the fire didn't reignite, Skaarup said.

Fire investigators were determining whether the workers would be fined, Skaarup said. He also said the fire department could charge the firm, owned by Ken Frehner, for the cost of manpower to extinguish the blaze, Skaarup said. That decision was pending.