Pyrotechnics worker falls on Strip’s Eiffel Tower

Thursday, Sept. 2, 1999 | 11:42 a.m.

An otherwise grand opening of Paris Las Vegas was marred by an injury to a pyrotechnics worker who fell at the 540-foot Eiffel Tower after a spectacular fireworks display.

The accident occurred around midnight, about 2 1/2 hours after the five-minute show ended.

The injured man is believed to have been employed by Pyro Spectaculars of Rialto, Calif., the company that put on the show.

An estimated 35,000 people attended the opening of the Strip's latest resort, a $785 million complex owned by Park Place Entertainment.

Clark County Fire Department Bob Leinbach said this morning he wasn't sure how many spectators may have seen the fall. Details about the incident were still sketchy this morning.

Leinbach didn't have the identity of the injured man, and it wasn't clear how far he fell, though he said rescuers had to go two-thirds of the way up the tower, or about 360 feet high, to get to the man.

After reaching the man and treating him, the rescuers had to carry the victim up eight to 10 stories to the tower's observation deck and then take him down an elevator.

The man suffered a broken thigh bone, Leinbach said. "His injuries were not life threatening."

Medics treated him at the scene before transporting him to University Medical Center shortly after 2 a.m.

Leinbach said the man fell from a perch on the tower.

"It was not really a rescue, but it was physically demanding," he said. "It was not a jaws-of-life type thing, but you couldn't just walk right over to him."

He said the man was immobilized, given pain medication and a splint was placed around his broken femur.