High winds whip up fire in northwest valley

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

Winds that gusted to 40 mph in the Las Vegas Valley whipped flames in an abandoned building in the northwest valley into a two-alarm fire Monday afternoon.

The winds blew into the valley from a winter-like storm that brings a chance of thunderstorms to Las Vegas today, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service issued a wind advisory that expired at 8 p.m. Monday.

"There is a chance of thunderstorms here, although there's a better chance to the north of us," Weather Service meteorologist Larry Jensen said.

The highest gust recorded Monday was 40 mph in the southwest valley, Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Schlott said.

The highest winds recorded Monday in Southern Nevada occurred at Desert Rock on the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, clocked at 52 mph, Schlott said.

Temperatures will stay in the low 70s for highs today and Wednesday before gradually warming into the 90s by the weekend, Schlott said.

The two-alarm fire in the vacant, boarded-up saddle and tack shop at 1859 N. Decatur Blvd., started at 5:22 p.m., Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said. It was the second time in less than a year that the former Horse N Around Tack and Saddlery Shop had burned.

The building was under renovation to become a church last year when firefighters were called to a blaze there in August, he said.

Monday's fire closed Decatur from Lake Mead Boulevard to Vegas Drive at the height of rush-hour traffic, Szymanski said.

"It was like a blowtorch," Szymanski said of the most recent blaze in the building, which is located on an island of Clark County jursidiction. "It's a total loss now," he said. "It will have to be torn down now." Firefighters feared that the winds might spread flames into a rental storage unit complex north of the shop but they were able to contain it, Szymanski said.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but it is considered suspicious, Szymanski said. Clark County fire investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire and where it started, he said.

People waiting at a bus stop said they saw a man leaving the building shortly before flames and smoke became visible, Szymanski said. Las Vegas city marshals questioned a man then took him away in handcuffs once the fire was doused. No arrests were reported in connection with the fire as of this morning, authorities said.

Fires weren't the only problem exacerbated by the winds.

As winds gained strength throughout Monday, the Clark County Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management had issued a dust advisory through Monday night.

While unhealthful levels of dust did not occur because of high winds, monitors throughout the valley measured moderate levels of particles in the air.

Health officials urged children, the elderly and people with respiratory diseases, such as asthma or bronchitis, to stay indoors until calmer weather conditions returned.