Fire destroys five homes in new housing project

Eric Leake and Stephen Curran

Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004 | 11:26 a.m.

Fire investigators this morning were looking into what started a fire that burned five houses under construction in the northeastern valley.

Firefighters called to the 4100 block of Macadamia Drive about 9:15 p.m. found the wood frames of five houses engulfed in flames.

Two other framed houses and two neighboring residences suffered minor damage as well in KB Home's Walnut Glen development near Lamb Boulevard and Craig Road.

"If you wanted to design a fire to burn fast, this is how you'd do it," said Clark County Fire Department Sgt. Lonnie Walch of the bare wood frames. "Thank heavens we didn't have any wind at all."

Walch said firefighters from the county, North Las Vegas and Las Vegas Fire & Rescue had the two-alarm fire subdued within five minutes. About 15 units and 40 firefighters worked together to control and extinguish the blaze.

About $1 million in damage was estimated, Bob Leinbach, a spokesman for Clark County Fire Department, said. Investigators had initially estimated the damage at $500,000 but changed the amount after talking to the builder of the homes and learning that what firefighters had thought was a detached garage was, in fact, a separate house, Leinbach said.

Fire investigators returned to the scene this morning to continue the investigation and did not yet have a suspected cause for the blaze, Leinbach said.

Speaking by phone this morning from the scene of the fire, Leinbach said he did not know how many construction-related fires his department had handled this year, but he said that they were rare.

"I'd say it's about five a year," he said of similar fires in the county's jurisdiction. "When they happen, they're fairly dramatic. They don't happen that often, but when they do, they draw a lot of attention."

Three partially built homes were destroyed last month after a fire broke out in a northwest Las Vegas housing development.

That fire caused about $1.5 million in damage to three homes near Jones Boulevard and Elkhorn when it spread from a middle house to the two on either side on Nov. 11.