Boulder Highway bar hit by blaze

Tuesday, June 8, 2004 | 10:08 a.m.

A vase of red roses and cash drawers were rescued Monday from a bar fire in Henderson that led to an estimated $150,000 in damage but caused no injuries.

Henderson fire investigators said a faulty halogen spotlight atop the Roadhouse Casino, on Boulder Highway near Sunset Road, sparked a two-alarm fire.

No customers were at the bar or restaurant at the time. Manager Joe Sulima with bartenders Tammy Cunningham and Tracy Goslin escaped the flames and smoke unharmed.

The smoke alarm worked and the fire sprinklers drenched the establishment, Sulima said. Henderson and Clark County firefighters arrived moments after the 6 p.m. alarm sounded, Henderson Battalion Chief Robert Maroney said.

It took about half an hour to douse the flames, which spread through the attic on the north side of the building, Maroney said. The flames spread from the outside of the roof into the attic.

A firefighter rescued a vase filled with deep red roses and brought them to Cunningham, who stood in the parking lot that was snaked with fire hoses.

"I didn't have time to get them," Cunningham said. "We had to grab the cash drawers from the bar."

The employees said right before the fire alarm, they smelled an odor they compared to hot dogs cooking. The air above a dance floor turned smoky black.

Cunningham and Goslin said the smoke was so thick inside the bar that they had trouble punching in a code to unlock the bar's cash drawers.

"It's hard with all that black smoke to punch in your code," Cunningham said.

"I said, we gotta get the money," Goslin said. "If jumping bars was in the Olympics, we'd have the gold."

The ceiling over the dance floor caved in as Goslin and Cunningham said they yelled at Sulima to get outside.

Sulima said the 20 employees of the bar, which was built in 1962 as a Stuckey's restaurant, will be back at work in no time. Before it became a bar, the building was reincarnated as a Henderson information center and a Thai restaurant. Sulima said he opened it as a bar and restaurant in December.

"We'll just have to get in there, clean up and be ready for Saturday night," Sulima said.

The Roadhouse is hosting Uncle Kracker's after-hours party, Sulima said. Uncle Kracker performs at Mandalay Bay with Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flatts, then plans to party at the Roadhouse. Uncle Kracker, a DJ turned singer, is also known as Matt Shafer of Detroit. He once backed Kid Rock on the turntable.

Roadhouse secretary Betty Rogers went home early, but saw the fire on TV news, returned to the site and sat in the parking lot on a white plastic chair, waiting for Nevada Power, Southwest Gas, the Clark County Health District and the state Gaming Control Board to finish inspections.

"We'll have that party if we have to hold it out back in that big wide open space," Rogers said.

Henderson fire inspectors Joel McGinnis and Donald Spellman combed through burned wires, water-soaked pink insulation and crumbled white roof shingles to determine how the fire started and spread.

"At least it's not arson," McGinnis said.