Las Vegas news briefs

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

* BLAZE EXTINGUISHED -- Firefighters extinguished a fire today about 15 minutes after it started at the Southern Nevada Water Treatment Plant at Lake Mead, a dispatcher said. The 7 a.m. fire started on the roof of a brick and concrete building that is under construction to house a chlorine storage tank. The plant is located about 1 1/2 miles northwest of the Lake Mead Marina and nine miles north of Boulder City. There was no chlorine inside at the time of the fire. The cause of the fire was not yet determined, and the damage estimate was not yet known, officials said. National Park Service firefighters were joined by Boulder City and Henderson fire department crews in battling the blaze.

* LV MAN ARRESTED -- FBI agents and Metro Police have arrested a Las Vegas man accused of robbing one bank and possibly linked to seven others. Thomas Paul McConville Jr., 49, was arrested Monday at the Aztec Inn, in the 2200 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South, after authorities obtained a warrant for his arrest, the FBI said. He was taken into custody based on a complaint charging him with the July 10 robbery of the First Interstate Bank branch at 1700 S. Main St. McConville, also known as Curtis Thomas Abshire, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and was to appear before U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston today. FBI agents and Metro Police are investigating seven other bank robberies since June 17 in the Las Vegas Valley in which McConville is suspected, the FBI said.

* $6 MIL. IN DAMAGES -- A company owned by prominent Las Vegas doctor R.D. Prabhu has been awarded more than $6 million in damages in a civil lawsuit. A District Court jury found doctors Bob Molzen and Frank Silver liable to Red Rock Urgent Medical Care. Prabhu is majority owner of the clinic. The judgment, including interest and punitive damages, amounts to $6,361,215. An attorney for Silver said his client would appeal, describing the verdict as confusing. Prabhu alleged the other physicians took funds away from the Red Rock company while diverting patients to competing facilities.