Fatal fire at group home investigated

Monday, March 22, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Las Vegas fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire Saturday that killed two residents of a group home near St. Louis Avenue and McLeod Street.

Best Group Care did not have fire sprinklers installed as required by state law, but had until April 27 to do so, a fire official said Sunday.

Several of the home's residents had gone shopping or for walks when the fire started about 2:15 p.m. Saturday, but a man and a woman remained at the home, Las Vegas Fire Department Deputy Chief Greg Gammon said.

Firefighters discovered the dead man inside the charred remains of the home. The woman was taken to University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The identities of the two victims had not been released this morning.

Neighbors said they tried to put out the flames with garden hoses at the assisted living home in the 3000 block of Holly Hill Avenue.

Thick black smoke and intense heat drove nearby residents back from the single-story stucco house where five elderly people, some in walkers and wheelchairs, had been living for a few months, neighbors said.

Damage was estimated at $145,000, Gammon said. "The house was a complete loss," he said.

Under state law any group care home with more than three people must have a fire alarm system and indoor fire sprinklers. Best Group Care had applied for a license in January and had until April 27 to meet requirements, Gammon said.

Gammon said that older group care homes are not required to have those fire protections.

"I know they're going up all over town," Gammon said of group care and assisted living homes.

County assessor records indicate that since May 2003 Irma Rafael has owned the home that burned.

Neighbors said they saw a fire alarm hanging on a wall of the home but did not hear it going off during the blaze.

Neighbor Ernie Parrish, who lives three doors down from the group care home, said he saw a man outside in the driveway and a woman resident out walking when the fire started.

Parrish said he believed the fire alarm had been installed recently and that the sprinkler system had not been completed.

G.N. Burton, another neighbor, said, "I didn't even know it was a group care home."