Electrical malfunction causes Circus Circus fire

Heather Rawlyk

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004 | 11:10 a.m.

Three floors of guests at Circus Circus were evacuated Tuesday after a fire broke out in a third-floor hotel room.

Clark County firefighters responded to the hotel at 5:10 p.m. after someone reported smoke coming from one of the guest rooms in the north tower, according to Clark County Fire Department Spokesman Bob Leinbach.

When firefighters got to the hotel, they could see smoke coming from a window, Leinbach said. Guests on the third, fourth and fifth floors were evacuated, and firefighters quickly put out the flames.

No injuries were reported, Leinbach said.

Investigators said the fire was accidental and was caused by an electrical malfunction in an air conditioning unit located just below the room's window.

The fire caused $25,000 in damage, Leinbach said.

The hotel's fire sprinkler system was not activated during the fire, he said.

"But that is common," he said. "It is probably just because they are activated by heat, not smoke, and there probably wasn't enough heat to turn them on."

Still, a fire prevention team was called to the hotel to test the sprinkler system to ensure that they were working, Leinbach said. The inspection was not complete Tuesday night, and the results were not available this morning.

"The only thing we don't know is if the sprinkler malfunctioned or if it just wasn't hot enough," Leinbach said this morning.

Although guests staying in the higher floors were not evacuated, many got themselves out of the building to be on the safe side.

Caroline Hill of England said she was in her room on the 16th floor when she heard a siren outside her window.

"My son went outside and smelled smoke, and we looked outside our window and saw all these people staring up at the hotel," Hill said. "We decided we should get out and came right down in the elevators."

Hill said she was surprised that she didn't hear any fire alarms and that the elevators were working during a fire.

"It did make me worry a bit," she said. "It wasn't a big fire, but still, I would expect there would be some sort of alarm or some kind of order to get us out safely."

Hill said it took her family eight minutes to get out.

"And that was with no panic," she said. "I am convinced from this if there was a big fire, something big, there is no way we'd all get out OK."