Fire guts houses being built near Nellis

Eric Leake

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

Three houses under construction near Nellis Air Force Base burned Monday night as firefighters ran into problems with a hydrant next to the homes.

Clark County and North Las Vegas fire crews were working this morning to determine what caused the fire, which started about 9:40 p.m. in a neighborhood along Alexander Road at Puebla Street and gutted three two-story homes.

Firefighters hooked up their hoses to a hydrant next to the houses which did not work, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said. Firefighters then had to drag hose 700 feet to the next nearest hydrant while battling the fire with water from trucks.

"In the six or seven minutes we lost hooking up the second hydrant the fire spread in all directions," Leinbach said. "It did cause unnecessary damage to the structures."

He said hydrants must be approved before builders can begin constructing houses and that investigators were still looking into whether the malfunctioning hydrant had been properly installed.

If the hydrant is found to not meet department standards, the builder could be cited, Leinbach said.

"That hydrant is required to be installed and working," he said. "It was supposed to have been done."

Investigators this morning had not tracked down the builder, Leinbach said. A nearby sales trailer advertised new homes in the Alexander Park community.

Leinbach also said investigators this morning had not determined which construction company built the homes.

It took fire crews about 15 minutes to get the blaze under control, Leinbach said. One of the houses was a complete loss and the other two partial losses with the preliminary estimate of the total damages put at $250,000.

No people or additional buildings were threatened by the isolated fire.

"This is the most vulnerable stage for a structure," Leinbach noted of the houses, which were all wood frames.

Sun reporter Stephen Curran contributed to this story.