Downtown hotel fire causes minor injuries

Keith Paul

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 11 a.m.

Rose Kresyman has not been lucky in Las Vegas.

Kresyman went to University Medical Center for the second time this week Thursday when she and 16 others -- including a 3-year-old girl -- were hurt or inhaled smoke in a two-alarm fire at the Gold Spike, a downtown Las Vegas hotel-casino.

Leo Kresyman watched as Las Vegas firefighters used a ladder truck to lift his 80-year-old wife from the roof of the casino.

"I'm ready to go home. This is a jinx," said Kresyman of St. Louis; he has been in town with his wife since Tuesday.

"She'll be OK. We'll be back."

Rose Kresyman also visited the hospital Tuesday, when she fell while trying to get up from a chair at a blackjack table and injured her shoulder and hip and cut her head, Leo Kresyman said.

The 11:04 a.m. fire Thursday was contained to one room on the third-floor of the 107-room, seven-floor hotel-casino, but those fleeing the building reported thick black smoke filled the hallways and the casino.

The cause of the fire at the Gold Spike is under investigation, and damage was estimated at $150,000. Some of the damage came as people knocked out windows in an attempt to escape the hotel-casino, which was built in 1975 and is owned by Jackie Gaughan, one of Nevada's gaming pioneers.

The smoke apparently caused some panic as people fled the building. Two women jumped from the fourth floor onto a third-floor roof. One of the women suffered a broken ankle, said Tim Szymanski, a Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman.

Firefighters also found people hanging out of windows and others claiming they were going to jump.

"They smelled the smoke and thought they were going to burn up. They panicked, but there was no reason to," he said.

Metro Police Officer Julie Hager saw the smoke while driving downtown. She saw people hanging out of windows when she arrived at the hotel.

"Some people were threatening to jump," she said. "We tried to keep them calm and get everyone out."

Tourist Duane Norris said he didn't think people were panicking. Rather, they were trying to escape the smoke.

"I jumped out of the window, but it was like six or seven feet to another roof and then another six or seven feet down," said Norris of Phoenix. "This kind of stuff happens, but when it happens in Las Vegas people will try to make a bigger deal out of it."

The 17 injured people -- including two Metro Police officers who went into the building to ensure that everyone had left -- were taken to four area hospitals for treatment. None had life-threatening injuries, and the broken ankle was the most serious, officials said.

The injured people released from care were picked up at the hospitals by cars sent by the casino, said Mike Nolan, general manager of the Gold Spike.

When the fire alarms went off, patrons were told to leave the tables and slot machines and head out the doors.

Those ushered out were some of the same people standing outside waiting to go back into the Ogden Avenue casino near Las Vegas City Hall.

"I've got money in one of those machines," Andrew Dent said. "They told me I had to leave. I said, 'I had money in a machine,' but they said, 'Don't worry it will be here,' and I had to go."

Dent admitted it was just $20, but it was his $20.

The casino re-opened a few hours later, Nolan said.

"The casino is full and everything is OK," he said.

The third floor will remain closed until it is cleaned up. Hotel guests will be placed in other rooms or in other hotels owned by Gaughan, Nolan said.

The Gold Spike was inspected in April by fire inspectors who found no fire or safety code violations. The casino has sprinklers, but the hotel does not. The Gold Spike was not required to install a sprinkler system under new codes enacted after two deadly hotel-casino fires.