Condo fire damage hits $4.5 million

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003 | 9:22 a.m.

Fire investigators have determined that a Jan. 7 blaze at an unfinished time-share condominium project on West Tropicana Avenue caused an estimated $4.5 million in damage.

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach called the amount of damage "unusually high."

"Certainly anything in the million-dollar (loss) range is significant. We don't see many in that range," Leinbach said.

He explained that buildings under construction typically suffer greater losses because they often have not yet had fire prevention safeguards installed.

But while fire officials do now have a dollar amount for the damage, they still won't say what caused the fire. They said that's still under investigation. Leinbach would not say if there were preliminary indications that it may have been arson.

The pre-dawn fire at the 186-unit Consolidated Resorts' Tahiti at 5101 W. Tropicana quickly escalated to three alarms. Flames stretched 40 feet into the night sky. The Tahiti had been under construction by a general contractor, Martin-Harris, since August.

The fire also damaged three buildings at West Trop Condominiums at 5155 W. Tropicana. Two eight-unit structures were scorched by the heat from the blaze and one eight-unit building was consumed by flames.

The last high-damage fire in Clark County was in October 2001 at the AeroTech rocket factory on Palm Street near Boulder Highway, Leinbach said. That fire burned for more than 24 hours and caused an estimated $12 million in damage. One plant worker was killed.