“We really need the rainfall to really solve the problems,” Mr. Scott Overpeck, a Weather Service meteorologist in Albuquerque, said there was not much relief in the forecast, with only a few storms expected on Sunday. If the direction of the wind changes quickly, you have to be prepared to react immediately.” “You have to have your head on a swivel because conditions can change quickly. More than 520 firefighters have been battling that blaze, but the high winds on Friday were making it too dangerous for firefighting aircraft to join in, said David Shell, a spokesman for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, which is coordinating efforts to fight the Cooks Peak fire. “The whole community is stepping up and working together,” he said.Īnother fire farther north, the Cooks Peak fire, has charred more than 55,000 acres in northeastern New Mexico since it started on April 17. Cox said he had given Red Cross workers burritos when they came to his restaurant, and offered them more on their next visit. “With the fuel conditions we have, folks need to be prepared not only for this fire, but from any new starts that are going to be established,” he said. Logs in the area are drier than the kiln-dried two-by-fours sold in hardware stores, said Mike Johnson, a fire information officer working on the Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak fire. Roads have been blocked, and smoke has filled the air. Cox said the fire had burned a golf course and come within a half mile of his property outside Las Vegas. Police had taped off the building, the front of which was blackened by smoke.Mr. County records list the building as having 41 units.īecause of the soot throughout the building, residents will not be able to go back into the building, Szymanski said. Saturday's fire was possibly the deadliest in the Las Vegas area since 1980, when 87 people died and more than 700 were injured in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel.įire officials said 30 to 35 people were displaced and the Southern Nevada Red Cross said it sent personnel to provide assistance.
#Las vegas newsfire code#
The city's code enforcement office did not immediately return telephone messages Saturday. The State Fire Marshal's Office will investigate for code violations, including any involving fire alarms, he said. Szymanski said firefighters reported hearing smoke alarms going off, but not fire alarms. She said she would leave a message for Adolfo Orozco, the man listed in state incorporation records as the business' managing member. Meteorologist Chris Outler says the low was 40 degrees (4.4 Celsius) early Sunday.Ī woman answering the phone at the office of the entity listed as the building's owner, Las Vegas Dragon Hotel LLC in Las Vegas, told the AP she was told not to comment. Temperatures overnight have been dipping into the high 30s, according to the National Weather Service. The cause of the fire appeared to be accidental, and the fire was largely contained to the first-floor unit where it started in the stove area, Szymanski said.ĭisplaced residents told investigators that some had been using their apartment's stoves for warmth because the building lacked heat, he said. It wasn't immediately known if any of the deaths were from people who jumped from windows. Thirteen people were injured, mostly from smoke inhalation, but victims also had fractures, including one with broken legs and possibly a broken back, Szymanski said. A fall of 16 feet (4.9 meters) or higher can be fatal." "The first thing that you think of is: We've got to rescue those people. "The whole place was like one big black cloud of smoke - couldn't get down the stairs," Sykes told The Associated Press.įirefighters arriving at the scene began treating injured and using ladders to rescue numerous people already jumping or hanging from windows, fire department spokesman Tim Szymanski said. Residents reported awakening to pounding on doors around 4 a.m.īy the time Matthew Sykes got his clothes on to flee, one end of his second-floor hallway was choked with thick black smoke, as was a stairwell, making it impassable for he and his wife. Las Vegas firefighters work the scene of a fire at a three-story apartment complex early Saturday, Dec.
Investigators reported that the fire started around a first-floor unit's stove and that residents had told them that there was no heat in the building, which sits a few blocks from downtown Las Vegas' touristy Fremont Street District.
#Las vegas newsfire windows#
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A fire in a three-story apartment building in downtown Las Vegas where residents were apparently using their stoves for heat killed six people and forced some residents to jump from upper-floor windows to escape the heavy smoke before dawn Saturday, authorities said.
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