Clues sought amid aftermath of blaze

Jace Radke

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 11:11 a.m.

Arson-detection dogs today are going through the charred remnants of nine homes that were under construction to determine the cause of a blaze that destroyed or damaged a total of 17 houses Thursday night.

Las Vegas and Clark County firefighters responded to the four-alarm blaze, which began about 5:15 p.m. inside the wooden frames of an under-construction housing development near Peace Way and Durango Drive. The fire then jumped a block wall and spread to six occupied homes.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and damage is estimated at more than $3 million.

Wind gusts pushed the fire west into a completed housing development on Heavenly Love Way that backs up to the homes under construction, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

"This wouldn't be a problem without the wind," Leinbach said. "We maybe would have had a little damage to the backs of the completed homes, but the wind kicked the fire into the vents of the homes and caused the attics to catch."

A house and an apartment on Bonita Vista Street, one street east of Heavenly Love, also caught fire because of wind-blown embers.

A firefighter was taken to University Medical Center, where he was treated for minor burns and released. Another firefighter was given oxygen at the scene, Leinbach said.

A third firefighter was taken to UMC with chest pains, but was listed in good condition this morning and was being monitored in the hospital's heart center, hospital officials said.

There were no other injuries.

Roger Hunt was inside his home on Heavenly Love when he heard a strange noise and discovered 30-foot flames behind his house.

"It was like a rumbling noise, and I went to look out back and there were the flames," Hunt said. "A big board landed in my yard and was throwing flames and embers up at my house. My skylights blew out from the heat, and I just grabbed my keys and wallet and got my car out of the garage."

Carollynn Garvey, at her home on the east side of Heavenly Love, was getting ready to make dinner when she heard the rumbling of the fire as it attacked the homes.

"It sounded like someone was doing construction work," Garvey said. "I went outside and there were flames and black smoke everywhere. I ran down the street to make sure my neighbors were out, and embers were raining down and burning me.

"It was hard to breath, so I grabbed my dog and got out of there."

Garvey's dog Dallas, a miniature American Eskimo, was running around near the area where firefighters were getting water and resting after being rotated off the front lines by fresh firefighters.

Garvey eventually made a makeshift leash for Dallas out of Metro Police crime scene tape, but the small dog's antics were not noticed by the exhausted firefighters.

County Fire Captain Randy Bradshaw said the fire started at one of the worst possible times.

"We take a lot of pride in our job, and while a fire is burning we don't take breaks, but this is a tough one," Bradshaw said. "It's the hot part of the day, and in the late afternoon all the other calls we've had in the heat of the day just builds on you."

Paramedics treated firefighters for fatigue and made sure they were hydrated as they rotated through a makeshift rehab area at Peace and Heavenly Love. Firefighters wrapped soaking towels around their heads and shrugged out of their fire retardant jackets as they rested. Some sat in folding chairs, while others simply sprawled in driveways.

The fire was extinguished by 7 p.m., but Southwest Gas engineers were still working to shut off gas lines installed in the homes under construction. The gas lines shot flames about 10 feet in the air above the charred remains of the home frames.

About 35 engines and trucks were used to combat the fire, including three ladder trucks with powerful spray nozzles at the top of their main ladders.

"It's very unusual to see three ladder trucks on one fire," Leinbach said. "They are used for defensive firefighting and are kind of like our artillery. We can knock the fire down with them, but we really need to get our firefighters, who are like our infantry, in there to get everything taken care of."

Leinbach said that four-alarm fires are rare, and that the most recent one he could remember happened about three years ago at the Rio hotel-casino. That blaze got into a vent system in a restaurant, and the four-alarm call was mostly precautionary because the blaze was putting out a lot of smoke and was inside a high-rise hotel.

Nevada Homes, the builder of the completed development near the burned homes that were under construction, is being sued by members of the Day Star Property Owner's Association -- the development where the six occupied homes were damaged by fire -- for construction defects. The suit was filed in October 1999 and is scheduled to go to trial in February. The suit is for damages and fees totaling about $3 million, according to court records and plaintiff attorneys.

Clark County's chapter of the American Red Cross found housing Thursday night for about 20 people displaced by the fire. Other residents forced from their homes because of the fire were able to find their own lodgings, said Carolyn Levering, emergency services director.

The Red Cross is taking donations for the residents whose homes were damaged. Those wishing to make donations may call 791-3311.