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.