Investigators finish probe at site of mammoth blaze

Afsha Bawany

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2003 | 9:40 a.m.

After a few hours on the job Monday, Clark County's arson detection dog, Wren, pointed investigators to evidence of flammable material in the rubble of the apartment complex that burned last week at Boulder Highway and Russell Road.

Some of the material that the dog alerted to has been sent to a laboratory for more investigation. Results were expected back sometime today.

That doesn't mean the fire that caused $10 million in damage to the Firenze apartment complex was caused by arson, Bob Leinbach, a spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department, said. Flammable liquids are common at construction sites, Leinbach said.

Leinbach said this morning that members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Response Team along with Clark County firefighters have completed investigation at the site and will not return there this week.

As investigators and Wren sorted through the debris Monday, residents watched and waited for insurance agents to arrive and assist those displaced because of the fire.

Last Tuesday Rocco Sassone, a 32-year Las Vegas resident, lost his job as a supervisor of the craps table at Paris Las Vegas, he said. On Thursday night the 54-year-old lost his home. The four-alarm blaze that consumed 352 of Firenze's luxury apartments also affected four homes in the adjacent Boulder Ranch neighborhood, Jim Frasure, the division president of D.R. Horton Homes said. D.R. Horton built the homes.

All four homes were occupied. Three were only affected by smoke and water. Sassone's portion of a triplex was the exception. It suffered fire damage as well.

Sassone had lived in his new Boulder Ranch triplex for a little more than a year. Early Friday morning, when authorities finally allowed him back into his home, he found the carpets soaked, the walls charred and the house reeking of smoke.

Upstairs, his master bedroom's roof burned through and is now open to the sun. His bed was covered with debris.

"This place was immaculate," Sassone said as he looked around his room and his closet Monday morning and choked back tears. "I have no clothes left."

Though they were soaked, framed pictures of Sassone's family remained hanging on the downstairs living room walls, and Sassone was thankful that the photos had not been upstairs.

His relatives are in New York. He lived alone with his 4-year-old cat.

Sassone managed to save the cat from Thursday's fire, and his insurance company is putting them up in a furnished apartment for the time being. The American Red Cross is also helping him out, and he has job interviews lined up once he can put his life back together, he said.

"This is the second time, and I have to start all over again," Sassone said tearfully.

In 1980 his apartment at Flamingo and Maryland Parkway burned while he was working at the Flamingo Hilton. So he knows what he has to do now.

"I just have to start from square one," Sassone said. "I can't give up."