Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Hydrant blows into air as firefighters battle blaze

A fire at a vacant house near West Charleston and South Rainbow boulevards this morning caused about $75,000 damage and shut down traffic after a fire hydrant launched into the air, officials said.

A firefighter also suffered a minor knee injury, officials said.

Fire officials received multiple reports about 2:10 a.m. of trees burning near a one-story house at 1004 Sproul Court, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said in a news release.

When firefighters arrived, they discovered trees in the backyard and the rear of the house on fire, Szymanski said.

Firefighters used water from their trucks to control the tree fires, but when they went to connect fire hoses to a hydrant across the street, the hydrant broke off its pipe and flew into the air, landing about 10 feet away, Szymanski said.

Firefighters stopped traffic in both directions on West Charleston for about 90 minutes as they used another hydrant hundreds of feet away. The broken hydrant caused a delay that allowed the fire to spread, Szymanski said.

A neighbor’s tree also caught fire, but the man put it out with a garden hose, officials said.

No other houses were damaged.

The neighbor told investigators homeless people have been at the property, and one man had a makeshift hut outside the vacant house where he would cook, Szymanski said.

It appears people were staying inside the house as well, he said.

The fire appears to have started outside, where someone’s personal items were found, Szymanski said.

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