Alleged power pirating leads to 4-alarm blaze

Heather Rawlyk And Ed Koch

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 10:54 a.m.

Las Vegas Fire and Rescue investigators say an attempt to illegally tap into Nevada Power lines caused a fire late Thursday morning that burned two Las Vegas homes and one garage, displacing eight people.

Two wires were hooked onto Nevada Power lines on a utility pole behind the houses. Apparently someone was trying to provide electricity to a house in the 4300 block of Dover Place, near Alta Drive and Decatur Boulevard, after the power company had disconnected the power to the home, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

The wires started a fire in the back yard of the home about 11 a.m., and Thursday's winds caused the fire to spread quickly to the house, a house next door and a garage workshop behind the houses, Szymanski said.

"That wind made a big difference this morning," Szymanski said. "It was really hampering our efforts to put the fire out. The shifting winds were blowing the flames in all directions and that's why we went to four alarms, to surround it" with firefighters.

About 100 firefighters in 31 fire vehicles from Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County responded to four alarms and were able to control the fire within 45 minutes, before it spread to other homes nearby, Szymanski said.

The fire was out within an hour, he said.

Everyone who had been in the two homes escaped without injury, but the damage was estimated at $350,000, Szymanski said.

The garage, which was used as a workshop and housed two race cars and numerous tools, was destroyed.

"The owner (of the cars) said the fire set him back nearly $100,000, most of which is not insured," Szymanski said.

And occupants of the home where the fire originated may have lost pets in the fire, according to neighbor and friend, Rachel Ceja on Dover Place.

"They (the occupants of the home) breed Yorkies," she said. "I talked to them and they were shook up because they got some of the puppies and the mother, but had to leave the older dog, Cookie, and three other puppies behind.

Ceja, 24, said she was at home when she smelled smoke and heard three explosions, which she guessed to be propane tanks.

"I looked out and there was a small fire and then it just got huge," she said. "The wind blew the flames in all directions and they were shooting across the street."

Ceja said she was worried because her aunt lives directly across from the house that was on fire.

"We ran in and grabbed her dog because she wasn't home," she said.

Ceja added that the home which caught fire had had its power cut off and on recently.

"They keep having their power cut off and turned back on a lot," she said. "I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but that's been going on."

Nevada Power officials say that theft of electricity in Southern Nevada has not been a major problem, and that losses of generated power here are far less than the norm.

"The national average for power loss from theft is about 4 percent of total generation, while in Las Vegas it's 1 percent (on average, about 20 megawatts a day)," Nevada Power spokeswoman Sonya Headen said. "It has not been a major problem here because we have been proactive with our theft prevention efforts.

"We're normally tipped off by neighbors and police or our work crews see it. And we have a department that specifically handles revenue protection."

Also, Nevada Power has a designated hotline for reporting power theft: (702) 657-4158.

The penalty for stealing from any utility is a misdemeanor if the theft of property and service is less than $500 or a Class D felony if the utility can prove more than $500 in equipment and service was stolen. A misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. A Class D felony carries a maximum of one to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Headen said that while Nevada Power is cooperating with fire investigators and has launched an investigation of its own, the utility has not yet received any official report that electrical theft was the cause of Thursday's fire.

"I've talked to a lot of people who have been with Nevada Power a long time and they say this is the first fire of this magnitude (related to apparent power theft) they can recall," Headen said.

She said the most common ways people steal electricity is directly from a pole's power lines or by tapping into a meter box.

"The cords people use (to tap into lines on polls) are not designed to handle the amount of voltage," Headen said. "It takes special equipment and lines that only our company has.

"Anytime you see a cord or wire running from a pole and into a house, Nevada Power should be notified."

To determine if electricity is being stolen from a meter, Headen said check the metal band around the meter to see if it is broken or check if the brass lock is missing.

Headen said theft from underground wiring rarely, if ever, occurs because it is difficult to reach the electricity source.

Underground wiring is used in the newer developments, while above-ground wiring is prevalent in the older parts of town, she said. In Southern Nevada, there are 1,892 overhead lines compared to 7,581 underground lines, Headen said.

Kevin Keys, 22, who lives a few houses down from where the fire occurred, said the neighborhood has had a lot of fires recently, many due to electrical problems.

"I've seen a lot of fires around here since I moved in," he said. "These are older houses, there's electrical problems, people cutting into utility poles, stuff like that."

Christopher Miller, 28, another close neighbor, blamed the high winds for the quick spreading of the fire.

"It started small in the back yard and that wind just picked it right up and spread it everywhere quick," he said. "I was worried it would spread to our houses. We were lucky."