2-alarm fire destroys 4 apartments

Cathy Scott

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A two-alarm fire early today in a low-income housing project in West Las Vegas destroyed four apartments and heavily damaged two others.

It's the second suspicious fire at the complex in less than a month.

Firefighters were called to the Sierra Nevada Arms apartments at 1916 Gerlach Drive at 1:36 a.m. and found a two-story, 15-unit building engulfed in flames, fire department spokesman Timothy Szymanski said.

About 40 firefighters with the Las Vegas and North Las Vegas fire departments had the fire knocked down in about 30 minutes, Szymanski said.

"It was a little stubborn," he said. "They had to tear several of the walls open to get to it."

No injuries were reported.

As firefighters searched the building to make sure no one was inside, they found a second fire that had burned itself out.

"It was obvious that someone had tried to start it," Szymanski said.

The original fire is still under investigation, he said, adding that investigators were calling it suspicious.

On Sept. 25, the building next door was damaged after an arsonist set it on fire early in the morning.

The vacant buildings are in a 352-unit complex near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards. They have been vacant because of unlivable conditions identified last year by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials.

The housing project, once privately owned and subsidized by HUD, was foreclosed on by the government. HUD and city officials have been negotiating with a nonprofit group to purchase the complex but the deal has not yet been finalized.