Tuesday, July 1, 2003 | 9:43 a.m.
Delores Bates and her family came to Las Vegas from Toledo, Ohio, expecting a fun vacation, but she didn't think a hotel fire would be the highlight of their trip.
"This is the most excitement we've had since we've been here," Bates said while standing outside the New Frontier at 3120 Las Vegas Blvd. South after she had been evacuated from her sixth-floor room.
The fire started about 11:50 a.m. Monday in a computer records storage room on the fifth floor, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.
All 15 floors of the hotel were evacuated, but the fire was confined to the fifth floor. It caused about $15,000 in damage. It's under investigation, but Leinbach said it was probably accidental.
"The sprinkler system that's in place and the codes we enforce worked very well," Leinbach said.
Las Vegas adopted some of the strictest fire codes in the country after a devastating fire at the old MGM Grand, now Bally's, in 1980 that killed 87 people and another blaze a couple of months later at the Las Vegas Hilton that killed nine.
As a result, sprinklers became mandatory in all hotels, motels, office buildings and apartments higher than 55 feet. There have been no deaths in any Las Vegas high-rise structure since the Hilton blaze.
Bates said she and her family were headed back to their rooms after eating in the hotel's restaurant when they smelled something burning, but assumed it was food.
"I opened my hotel room door and the alarm went off," she said. "I thought it was something I did. I didn't know what was going on."
Her son, Arteris Bates said he "thought it might have been a child" who was playing a prank.
As Bates and her family stood in the hallway, the smell of smoke became stronger, and hotel security guards told them the hotel was being evacuated.
Despite some initial fear, Bates said the blaze didn't put a damper on her trip to Las Vegas.
"My only regret is I didn't bring my camera," she said as she laughed and glanced at the fire trucks stationed in the hotel's valet area. "I would have taken pictures of all this."
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