From the inside: How they coped

Minute by minute, drama unfolds as workers and guests learn hotel is burning

Sam Morris

The charred upper floors of the Monte Carlo show where a fire broke out Friday, Jan. 25, 2008.

Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Fire at the Monte Carlo

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Clark County Fire Chief Steve Smith answers questions about the Monte Carlo fire and guests share their reactions to the evacuation process.

Monte Carlo Fire

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Business as usual

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A mid-morning fire at the Monte Carlo did little to disrupt life on the Las Vegas Strip Friday afternoon.

Monte Carlo Burns

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Smoke engulfs the Las Vegas skyline as the Monte Carlo burned for about an hour Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. Las Vegas and Clark County firefighters were able to contain the three-alarm fire that touched off on the top floors of the 32-story resort. At least seven people were injured in the nearly full 3,002-room hotel — the 13th largest in Las Vegas.

Rooms: 3,002 (13th largest in Las Vegas)
Casino sq. footage: 102,197 (18th largest in Las Vegas)
Slot machines: 1,650
Tables: 75
Poker tables: 15
Sports book sq. footage: 5,628
Convention square footage: 23,000
Parent company: MGM MIrage
Year opened: 1996
Branded restaurants: Diablo’s Cantina, Andre’s French Restaurant, Monte Carlo Brew Pub, Dragon Noodle, Market City Caffe
Top exec: Anton Nikodemus, president
Headliner: Magician Lance Burton

Unclear when fire-damaged Monte Carlo can be re-opened (1-25-08)
The band played on (1-25-08)
Abowitz: What fire (1-25-08)
Culinary phone bank to call its 1,200 workers (1-25-08)
Expert says disaster averted at Monte Carlo (1-25-08)
Monte Carlo loses $12.68 per second when its closed (1-25-08)

See a history of casino fires »

There’s plenty of excitement in the air at Monte Carlo on Friday morning, its lobby filled with people arriving for a great weekend on the Strip. George Thorogood is at the House of Blues, the Miss America pageant is at Planet Hollywood, Ashanti is hosting a party at Pure, and the American Society of Safety Engineers is meeting at the Flamingo.

In the travel industry, the 11-year-old Monte Carlo is considered an overflow hotel, the kind of place tourists go if their first choices — the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mirage and Venetian — are filled.

Tiffany Nelson, 21, has flown in from Dallas to celebrate a friend’s birthday and is just now opening the door to her room after having checked in downstairs, in an elegant lobby of gold and marble.

Ruth Santiago, who’s been on the housekeeping staff at the Monte Carlo since it opened, is cleaning rooms on the seventh floor. She’s one of 950 employees working at that hour.

Lynn Briggs of Amherst, N.H., is in town for the pageant — she’s the coach for Miss New Hampshire. She’s already checked in to her 28th-floor room and has decided to go for a walk up the Strip.

And there’s a fire on the roof of the 32-story hotel, offering a thickening column of black smoke against the winter sky.

Nobody inside knows. There aren’t any fire alarms on a roof.

But the flames are drawing gasps from pedestrians and motorists.

It’s three minutes before 11, and the Clark County Fire Department is now getting calls from all over. The Monte Carlo is on fire! There are fire and smoke on the roof!

The first call from the fire dispatch center goes to Fire Station No. 11, seven blocks away — surrounded by palm trees next to the Bali Hai Golf Course. The place empties out.

As they approach and see what’s burning, the first units call in the news: Skip the second alarm, this is a three-alarm fire. That triggers even more of a response. They pull up to the Monte Carlo at 11 a.m. Others are right behind: Engine 18, Engine 218, Engine 15. Two rescue trucks, a hazardous materials unit, a paramedic supervisor and a battalion chief are among the first to arrive. Within minutes, 35 pieces of equipment, and 120 firefighters, will be en route.

In Metro Police’s communications bureau, dispatchers start scanning their screens to get an idea of which officers are closest to the scene. Available officers are ordered to head for the hotel, which is sandwiched between New York-New York and and the under-construction CityCenter. The same company — MGM Mirage — owns them all.

Nelson, from Dallas, has started emptying her suitcase and has turned on the television. The screen shows the fire and she does something of a double-take. The caption on the screen says Monte Carlo. The flames are at her hotel, 10 floors above her. That’s really strange, she thinks; have I even heard a fire alarm go off? Nothing is happening in her room. She steps into the hallway and hears a voice coming from ceiling speakers: Please evacuate the building, it orders in measured and patient words.

“I personally think we were one of the first people to know about it,” she says. She and her friend duck back inside, assemble what few things they had unpacked and leave the room with their luggage.

They are surprised to see the housekeeping staff still tending to their chores. “There were maids, still cleaning and mopping. We were like: ‘There’s a fire. Come on, you gotta go.’ ”

The hotel’s president, Anton Nikodemus, happens to be at the hotel and is startled when he glances out a window and sees his roof on fire.

This is the thing about the hotel’s fire alarm: It is activated in zones — the floor where a fire is detected, and the floors below and above it. So even if an alarm had been activated automatically, most of the hotel would not have heard it.

Nikodemus gets on the phone and orders alarms throughout the hotel to be activated and the premises evacuated.

Annoying strobe lights flash up and down hallways, an obnoxious klaxon sounds in harsh electronic bleeps and, in stark contrast, a calm male voice coming from barely detectable speakers in the hallways and rooms orders guests, in measured tone, to leave immediately.

On a walkie-talkie, Nikodemus puts into play a long-rehearsed drill among security guards and engineers. He sends 200 of them to go knocking each of the hotel's 3,002 guest rooms, and to enter rooms where there is no response, to make sure everyone heeds the evacuation order.

There’s a reason for that: At a typical Las Vegas hotel, 20 percent of guests are in their rooms during the day. Some may be asleep. Some may be hard-of-hearing. Some may be drunk.

On the seventh floor, Santiago hears the alarm like everyone else. She parks her maid’s cart and does what she and her coworkers also have been trained to do.

“We just started knocking on doors,” she says.

It was the first evacuation of her career. But she said the employees had practiced the procedure before.

At 11:04 a.m. a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper sees the fire and gets on his radio. The Highway Patrol shuts down the northbound off-ramps at Tropicana, Flamingo and Spring Mountain. Traffic turns ugly. People arriving from Southern California are getting a lousy start to their weekend.

Metro Officers rushing to the scene know their drill. The first ones clear the street of vehicles, and the next group of officers blocks Las Vegas Boulevard South, keeping the street empty for emergency vehicles.

There’s a crowd gathering now, and other officers are out of their vehicles, waving pedestrians to stand clear. They are collecting across the street, taking photographs and videos with camcorders and cell phones. Man, what a picture, a Strip hotel is on fire. They’re held back by yellow crime tape.

One of them is Bob Heath, 27, who was driving in from Summerlin to play poker at Hooters. He heard there was a loose game and he wanted some of the action. Then he hears of the fire on the car radio. “I want to see this,” he says to himself. How often does big Strip hotel catch fire?

Briggs, the New Hampshire woman, is obliviously walking up the Strip when she gets a call on her cell from her hometown fire department, where she serves as an emergency medical technician. “They’re, like, ‘There’s a fire in the Monte Carlo.’ I said, ‘No. I just left.’ They said, ‘Turn around and look.’ ” It was on national television.

Five miles away at University Medical Center, Dr. David Slattery is examining a patient in the emergency room — overflowing with patients — when he hears someone pipe up, “Hey, look at the TV.”

That’s the first notice that UMC may be in for a busy day. It’s Southern Nevada’s only Level One trauma center and the state’s only burn center. For any disaster, it’s the region’s primary medical destination.

On any given day, about 90 ambulances from MedicWest and American Medical Response, which are owned by the same parent company, are on the street, ready to respond. Ten of then are dispatched to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, across the street from Monte Carlo, where a triage area is quickly being established.

Ambulance dispatchers issue an “All Call” page for more ambulance operators and paramedics. Sixteen more ambulances are soon on the road.

Word of the fire is now getting out to all local hospitals and emergency responders, through the Southern Nevada Health District’s emergency management system. Valley Hospital Medical Center puts its ER medical director and doctors on standby, alerts 10 ER nurses to be ready, and advises that it can take 30 patients.

UMC knows its role, too, most recently having been triggered into action by an overturned bus on Interstate 15 carrying hotel employees to work.

At the hotel, employees are still going room to room, floor by floor, to help direct the evacuation. One guest asks about grabbing luggage and is told there’s no time for that unless he wants to risk his life. The guest doesn’t appreciate the remark and says it adds to a sense of panic. Others say the evacuation seems orderly.

In the lobby, guests are directed to the parking lot. Some of them don’t want to abandon their slots.

Inside, firefighters are combing through the hotel, making sure it is empty. They declare the Monte Carlo empty of guests at 11:42. The elevators are operating to within two floors of the roof. A few firefighters take a larger service elevator to the 27th floor, then carry their hoses the last four floors to the roof.

The flames are still spreading, creeping along the large facade that hides rooftop ventilation equipment from view. The fire is devouring the elegant script of the hotel’s name. Flashes of fire erupt from a kind of polystyrene that is a popular material for carving out shapes and forms that are then painted over. Some of the blazing, melting foam falls onto a ledge below, giving the illusion that lower floors are afire. The flames scorch the side of the building.

The fire department has ordered media helicopters to stay clear of the hotel, worried that the turbulence from the blades will spread the flames.

Firefighters, frustrated they can’t reach some flames from the roof, bust out windows from guest rooms, lean out and direct their hoses on hot spots. They’re secured by webbing and held by fellow firefighters, and television viewers watch in awe.

Magician Lance Burton, who’s really good at making doves disappear and looks great in his tuxedo, cancels his evening show.

At UMC, Chief Nursing Officer Vicki Huber sees the big picture. Of UMC’s 588 beds, 559 are occupied. The first step in the internal disaster plan is to triage patients by discharging them or moving them out of intensive areas to open beds.

Slattery, down in the ER, surveys his 60-bed slice of the world and sees no room for new patients. This is normal. People are on beds in hallways attended by two nurses. About a dozen beds are filled by patients who are deemed suicidal but are mostly healthy otherwise. That’s a constant frustration in Las Vegas emergency rooms.

At UMC’s Lion’s Burn Care Center, Manager Melody Talbott has only one of her 25 inpatient beds open, though she can care for about 200 outpatients. She begins assessing patients to see which are healthy enough to shuffle to other parts of the hospital to make space for potential victims of the Monte Carlo fire. She figures she can make room for 15 patients, if necessary.

But shortly after noon, the fire is all but out. There are no major injuries. Thirteen people, mostly firefighters, are treated for smoke inhalation.

About now, investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrive, to help fire inspectors with the Clark County Fire Department.

They work into the evening.

Hotel employees are given word by the company: Even if parts of the hotel where you work are closed down for a while, don’t worry about your pay or benefits. We’ll take care of you.

Dislodged hotel guests settle in at other MGM Mirage hotels, and wait to be reunited with their luggage.

Tiffany Nelson from Dallas gets together with her friends and has a lot to talk about.

Ruth Santiago starts her normally scheduled weekend, and it doesn’t come soon enough.

And Lynn Briggs hopes that Miss New Hampshire gets the crown tonight.

Sun reporters Marshall Allen, Alexandra Berzon, Brian Eckhouse, Abigail Goldman, Steve Kanigher and Mike Trask contributed to this reconstruction of events surrounding the fire Friday at the Monte Carlo.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By ltbear55

1/26/08 at 7:43 a.m.

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An extremely well written article!
By BixInIndy

1/26/08 at 8:22 a.m.

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Yes it was.....after frequently struggling though the junior writers and lack of editing that happens at the Indianapolis Star, this article was well planned, informative and entertaining(if that's OK for an article referencing a potential disaster) I can tell the Sun probably isn't a Gannett paper. And if it is I wish the LV local writers could help out their co-workers in the midwest.
By magpie

1/26/08 at 8:49 a.m.

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Great story! I couldn't have got that from CNN or any other news station. I was hooked from the start. Well worth all the effort. By the way - I wonder if they'll change their spinkler system - I can't believe I three-alarm fire was taking place, with people still in the building.
By SOS

1/26/08 at 12:01 p.m.

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GOD said ("Does anyone else find it disturbing that the maids at the Monte Carlo had to get people to evacuate!?!? Not a great emergency evacuation plan.")

NO, I don't, its their job, what would have them do leave you sleeping and run out of the hotel to save themselves?!?! That is a ridiculous statement, its the responsibilty of all employees of the hotel to make guests aware of possible problem and I would expect them to do just what they did and would find it "distrubing" if they did not help in the evacuation process!! It takes a concerted effort to knock on and enter 3002 rooms and have all guests out within 45 minutes!
By SinCityGirl

1/26/08 at 12:18 p.m.

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The hotels in Las Vegas are probably some of the safest in the world due to strict fire code and lessons learned from fires in the 1980s.

The sprinklers did not go off because it was an exterior fire...deploying the sprinklers would not have helped in this situation since the flames were on the outside of the building. As I understand, the alarm systems and functioned as designed and as pointed out, there are no exterior fire alarms. It looks like the property president made the call to evacuate the enitre building and rightfully so...better safe than sorry.

As for hotel guestroom attendants assisting guests during the evacuation, who else would you suggest help evacuate a 3,000 room complex? They are on each floor and are trained as referenced in the article. I would be more disturbed if they just dropped their cleaning supplies and walked out without alerting guests.

This was the best possible outcome to a potentially monumental disaster. Kudos to the fire department and all of the Monte Carlo employees who ensured that their guests got out safely.
By OldTimeDemocrat

1/26/08 at 6:49 p.m.

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Since the time the Monte Carlo was built, the Uniform Building Code has said that parapets and mansards are to be constructed of substantial, safe materials. But here in Las Vegas, the casinos have lead Clark County officials around like they have rings in their noses.

The burning parts of the Monte Carlo were not mansards or parapets. They were cornices. A distinction without a difference ... unless one is an ethically compromised public official like Clark County's chief building inspectors over the past 20+ years...bending over to accommodate the casino builders desire to get the most flash for the lowest cost.

Anyone who watched the "live" TV coverage of the Monte Carlo fire could see the styrofoam decorative cornices on the top of the hotel, as well as cornices several floors below, burning like crazy.

Trying to make like there was no fire risk, Clark County now claims the styrofoam was coated with fiberglass and stucco, so that it was "not a fire hazard" and was "up to code".

Stucco did not insulate the styrofoam cornices. Fiberglass coating did not insulate the styrofoam cornices. Clark County knew that years ago, when these styrofoam architectural details were allowed.

It was and still is well known that styrofoam gives off hideously toxic gases when burned. That is what was making the black smoke coming off the walls of the hotel....not the roof coating burning. You could clearly see that on TV.

After the MGM Fire, Las Vegas hotel/casinos succeeded in convincing their customers that the building codes had been changed so a fire in a hotel tower could not become widespread. The Monte Carlo fire proved that public relations message wasn't true.

In 2007 Clark County (in the person of the head building inspector and county executive) looked the other way, refusing to address complaints about fire safety code violations at the Harrah properties...until the LVRJ spent money for experts to bring these county employees' moral corruption to light. That same crooked head building inspector was on TV yesterday and today, telling us that the County is investigating. He is temporarily keeping the hotel closed "so that debris does not fall" and harm anyone.

The hotel and casino will re-open quickly. There will be no retrofitting at any casino which has styrofoam based exterior details. The Clark County Commissioners, County Executive, Chief Building Inspector Lynn are wholly owned by the major casinos. Nothing will change.

What's even worse are the stories of hotel tower guests, reported in the newspapers today, telling about the hotel's half assed, belated evacuation of the property. Can you imagine what this disorganized, public relations driven evacuation would have lead to if the fire had moved inside?
By Objective_Observer

1/26/08 at 8:23 p.m.

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Can I still get a smoking room at the MC?
By SolarFloral

1/26/08 at 8:49 p.m.

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I feel that the situation which happened on Friday at the Monte Carlo on the way it was handled was just not a good job; it was a GREAT JOB and an outstanding one indeed. The employees and patrons at the Monte Carlo, as well as LV Metro, EMT services and CCFD acted accoringly, following thier emergency plans, putting pubic safety first and the fire was put out in no time. While many vistors were not planning this event, niether were the employees at the Monte Carlo. But one thing for sure, those employees who heard the news about the hotel's roof being on fire did the right thing and went into emergency/disater mode and began evacuating people, whoever they were, out of the building. I just wasn't just thier job, it WAS part of thier job......safety came first before themselves.

I feel that people who complain about the maids assisting in the evacution because "it wasn't thier job," talk about how the people were moved from place to place during the incident or throw in recent events concering the violation of the fire codes certain Harrah's properites should take in consideration that this unwanted incident was put under control in textbook fashion. While the spinklers may have not gone off in the rooms, the fire never reached into the interior,nor the rooms inside; if it did,then they would have gone off. But since the incident was self contained on the roof, it didn't happen. And if the was any damage to the rooms, it was water, not fire. Plus when the news broke, UMC had activated its burn unit, showing they were prepared in situations like this.

In short, they pounced on the problem, and got it done. If they had sat around complaining about the fire codes being violated, talking about how corrupt the City/County government is, how unsafe a Vegas Strip casino is, not liking thier jobs,don't care at all or just simply bicker.....then who knows what would have happened; the casulties would have been much higher.

But after 87 lives taken the old MGM (now Bally's) in 1980 and a few months later in 1981 at the Hilton, taking 8 lives, there was no room for more serious death or injuries and the codes which were revised after those incidents changed that way the hotels in Vegas (Fremont Street, the Strip or elsewhere in Clark County)handled thier safety plans;it became one of the most strictest fire codes in the country. As a result from the lessons learned from those two fires, this incident in its exicution,though serious, was operational and in the end guests were offered rooms at sister MGM properties and not ending up at a burn unit at Sunrise or UMC, or even worse, a makeshift morgue.

Moral of the Story: Appreciate the outcome of this incident and save the politics and minor mistakes during the evacuation for later, but not sweep it under the rug for never.

Image is important and Las Vegas just got a few points more from yesterday's incident at the Monte Caro.
By Audacious

1/27/08 at 8:50 p.m.

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As an occasional visitor to Vegas I'm pleased to read about the comprehensive disaster plan Clark County & the City of Las Vegas has in place, and that it worked!
By joia

2/1/08 at 3:57 p.m.

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What an informative, well-written article; you'd never have known the coordinated effort going on all around the city to deal with the fire from the broadcast TV (local and national) coverage.

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