Three children and wheelchair-bound man killed in apartment fire

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 10:19 a.m.

Three children and a man in a wheelchair were killed this morning when fire raced through an apartment complex on Las Vegas' east side.

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said firefighters found the bodies of three small children - ages 2, 4 and 5 - in a second-floor apartment.

Firefighters later found the body of a man in a wheelchair in a downstairs apartment.

The names of the victims were not released pending notification of next of kin.

Three people, including the mother of the three children, were treated for smoke inhalation.

The fire was reported about 7 a.m. at the Cedar Springs Apartments.

Leinbach said fire investigators were probing the rubble of the eight-plex unit and had not determined a cause or origin of the blaze. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police homicide detectives were also investigating, standard procedure in such deaths.

"It looks like a bomb hit the complex," Leinbach said. "The place is a total loss."

There was no immediate damage estimate.

Leinbach said the loss of life was the worst since the February 1981 fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel that killed eight people.