Visitor who barely avoided MGM fire not lucky this time

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, June 16, 1998 | 10:45 a.m.

Dennis McCall counted himself lucky back in 1980, having checked out of the MGM Grand hotel-casino the day before its deadly fire claimed more than 80 lives and injured 700 employees and guests.

He was lucky enough to watch the flames through his television set, having left Las Vegas and returned to work on that day almost 18 years ago.

Not so today.

Call it fate, call it irony: Tuesday morning McCall was out on the asphalt strip of U.S. 93, this time as an evacuated guest along with his wife and little girl as fire ripped through the Gold Strike casino, destroying the gaming area and leaving hotel rooms smothered in smoke.

"What a hell of a way to wake up," McCall said, watching across the street as flames shot out of the casino's roof about 100 yards away.

"It's weird. (After the MGM fire) we always look for the fire escapes when we get to a hotel. This is the first time we ever had to use one. A sense of urgency comes over you when it's real. You open a door trying to get out, never knowing if you're going to end up opening the door to the fire."

The McCalls were midway through their stay at the Gold Strike, the spot the Victorville, Calif., family always sleeps at during their almost weekly summer trips to boat on Lake Mead.

Pounding on their sixth-floor door woke them up about 1:30 a.m. Someone's excited screams had them thinking it was kids pulling a prank, said McCall's wife, Ramona.

"We never heard an alarm. We had our 'do not disturb' sign on the door," she said. Getting no answer when they called the front desk, the McCalls were tempted to go back to sleep when they heard yelling in the hall, the words "fire" and "fire escape" all they could distinguish.

A glance out the window and they knew it was real: smoke was pouring out the building and a crowd was swelling in the parking lot.

"I was lucky enough to miss the MGM fire," Dennis McCall said, affectionately nudging his little daughter, Candin, who wanted to stay on the Gold Strike's top floor when they checked in days ago. "At least we got out safely on this one."