Investigators examine fire that destroyed eight homes

Jace Radke and Kristen Peterson

Monday, March 29, 1999 | 11:38 a.m.

Clark County Fire investigators this morning are looking into a Sunday night fire in the southeast part of the valley that they have termed suspicious.

The fire at the Pebble Creek housing development, nestled between Pebble Road and Interstate 215, destroyed eight homes under construction and caused an estimated half million dollars in damage, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

The fire, which started about 9:15 p.m., is the third construction fire in as many weeks in the valley, including a Friday night fire that damaged or destroyed 14 homes being built in Summerlin.

On Friday, firefighters responded to a 10:18 p.m. call in the Glenmere housing development in Summerlin at Town Center and Alta drives to find six houses on fire. Within minutes, the wind spread the fire to another eight houses, city fire officials said.

The three-alarm fire was brought under control within an hour and residents of nearby occupied homes, who were evacuated because of thick smoke, were permitted to return to their homes by midnight, fire officials said. None of the occupied homes were damaged.

Eight of the homes under construction were destroyed. Six that were partially damaged will be razed, officials said. Each of the 3,000-square-foot homes would have been sold for about $200,000.

A witness reported a truck leaving the area without its lights on, but investigators have not yet determined whether there was foul play in the Summerlin fire, Tim Szymanski, Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman, said. He added that it would be a couple of days before a cause is known.

Sunday night's fire started in the west end of the Pebble Creek development, which is just west of Eastern Road and south of Pebble. A county engine was in the area for a medical call and quickly responded to the fire and asked for two alarms to combat it, Leinbach said.

"I can't say whether this could be related to the fire in the northwest," Leinbach said. "That fire is under investigation by the city, but we do know that the housing developments are owned by different companies."

Pebble Creek is owned by Southwest Homes. The Glenmere Housing Development is owned by Lewis, Kaufman and Broad.

One of the reasons that Sunday night's fire has been termed suspicious is that two small fires were reported on the site in the past few days.

"The two fires were both very minor, and they were found and put out by construction workers," Leinbach said. "But they were found by the workers. If they had been accidentally started by the workers they would have been right on top of them to put them out."

An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was at Sunday's fire working with investigators.

Although there is nothing to link the recent construction fires, Leinbach says that it's standard for county and city fire investigators to share notes.

"We work together when we can," Leinbach said. "We share information and if we can we'll double-team an investigation."

Szymanski noted that homes still in the framing stage with exposed and unprotected wood are very vulnerable to fire.

The weekend's fires were similar to a March 12 fire in the Mountain Aire housing development near Elkhorn Road and U.S. 95. The late-afternoon fire engulfed four homes under construction and damaged the outsides of two completed homes. Damage was estimated at $300,000. Investigation is still pending on the cause of that fire.

The Mountain Aire housing development is owned by Dunmore Homes.

In 1995, a rash of similar construction fires prompted fire officials to form a task force to provide fire prevention information at construction sites.