Las Vegas - Monte Carlo Casino Fire Raging Out Of Control!

Live on Headline News!

Top two floors consumed by fire and smoke.

Mass evacuation. No reported injuries. Live coverage on KVBC/KLAS/Headline News.

Planes landing and taking off at LAS/McCarran Int'l. may be affected by the smoke!

Debris is falling from the upper floors. The fire is spreading and getting worse! Looks very bad.

Live coverage on Headline News.

They should have sprinklers everywhere, so hopefully not a repeat of the MGM grand fiasco.

The blaze began at the top of the hotel and is spreading down. There are 32 floors and about 3,000 people staying at the hotel.

The fire is burning in three different parts of the casino.

Guests were spotted looking out of hotel windows, and guests are gambling. There has been no evacuation.

Debris is falling from the blaze, and it is catching other parts of the hotel on fire.

Las Vegas Boulevard is closed from Harmon to Tropicana Avenues.

The fire appears to be spreading, and traffic in the area is backed up...

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15138622/detail.html

Um, don't you think this is kind of stupid?

They should have sprinklers everywhere, so hopefully not a repeat of the MGM grand fiasco.

It's spread from the roof to 4 or 5 floors down, and into 2 of the 3 wings and deeper into the interior. It is still categorized as "out of control". :eek:

No reports of injuries; flames reported reaching into the sky; fire is spreading on several fronts.

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15138622/detail.html

Um, don't you think this is kind of stupid?
I guess people who are in Vegas want to try a different form of gambling??
Of course, gambling one's life away is a bit extreme...

I guess people who are in Vegas want to try a different form of gambling??
Of course, gambling one's life away is a bit extreme...

Looks like they've got it under control: no more flames; no more smoke......the roof and upper floors are seriously burnt.

Still continuous coverage on Headline News.

Nothing to see here, folks...keep moving.

Nothing to see here, folks...keep moving.

Ah, yes.....it is now reported that there were welders on the roof when the fire was reported........

Channel 8's Dave McCann just speculated that it could be a terrorist's act.:rolleyes: (What a ph'ing idiot!)

Channel 8's Gary Wadell just speculated that it could be a terrorist's act.:rolleyes: (What a ph'ing idiot!)

Yeah...it could have been caused by an alien invasion from Mars, too.

I guess people who are in Vegas want to try a different form of gambling??
Of course, gambling one's life away is a bit extreme...

"Your Money or Your Life"

;)

O/H

Yeah...it could have been caused by an alien invasion from Mars, too.

Or maybe a "hot" craps table? Oh wait: nevermind. The casino's on the ground floor........:rolleyes:

Good reminder for everyone to ALWAYS review the evacuation plan map on the door of your hotel and count the number of doors to your nearest fire escape or stairway from your room. Take all hotel fire alarms seriously and evacuate even though many turn out to be false alarms.

They should have sprinklers everywhere, so hopefully not a repeat of the MGM grand fiasco.
You don't think that could happen again?

Channel 8's Dave McCann just speculated that it could be a terrorist's act.:rolleyes: (What a ph'ing idiot!)
He should be fired.

Good reminder for everyone to ALWAYS review the evacuation plan map on the door of your hotel and count the number of doors to your nearest fire escape or stairway from your room. Take all hotel fire alarms seriously and evacuate even though many turn out to be false alarms.
Well said. I was in a hotel once and there was an alarm and I was the ONLY ONE standing outside. I was at a convention at the Atlanta World Congress Center once and only a few dozen of us left the building. Everyone else was wondering why the fire alarm was going off. I said, "maybe, there is a fire". Of course, there wasn't but I thought I would be safer than sorry.

Wirelessly posted (probably driving while typing: BlackBerry8130/4.3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I started a thread over in CommunityBuzz for anyone in need of assistance due to the fire.

I've bumped this thread, How to Survive a Hotel Fire (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=289078), which, sadly, is timely for today

Good reminder for everyone to ALWAYS review the evacuation plan map on the door of your hotel and count the number of doors to your nearest fire escape or stairway from your room. Take all hotel fire alarms seriously and evacuate even though many turn out to be false alarms.

Ah, yes.....it is now reported that there were welders on the roof when the fire was reported........

Channel 8's Dave McCann just speculated that it could be a terrorist's act.:rolleyes: (What a ph'ing idiot!)

Terrorist welders, the worst kind.

Oh No, NOT terrorist welders, this HAS to be directly connected to the sasquatchy guy on the NASA photos just released from Mars!!

"George Bush announced a short time ago that he would implement a new surge against the terrorists in Monte Carlo. He said troops from nearby in Germany and Italy would be used as they could be in place within an hour"

Later a spokesman said that the President had canceled his order after discovering that the intelligence he had received from the CIA was flawed.

Good reminder for everyone to ALWAYS review the evacuation plan map on the door of your hotel and count the number of doors to your nearest fire escape or stairway from your room. Take all hotel fire alarms seriously and evacuate even though many turn out to be false alarms.

And please, never, never take the elevator when an alarm is sounding. Grit your teeth, curse the fact that it will take forever...and take the stairs.

You do NOT want to be in an elevator when the power goes off in the middle of a fire alarm.

Grit your teeth, curse the fact that it will take forever...and take the stairs.

I remember walking down 23 flights of stairs once in when a hotel fire alarm went off...

What was burning was the exterior decoration made of foam with a light concrete coating. That is why the smoke was so thick and black, and was dripping burning materials.

It appears that the fire did not enter the hotel.

The aircraft may have not been affected as bad as the gridlock from the closing of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Frank Sinatra Drive during the fire.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/
http://lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/jan/25/88/

CSI reports that blubber residue from the last whale occupant in the penthouse caught on fire by Martian welders.

As of Saturday morning, the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino remains closed, with no word on when it will reopen. - Headline News

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...

Any chance of booking a slightly singed room for cheap? :)

Any chance of booking a slightly singed room for cheap? :)

Since none of the actual rooms were even slightly singed...I doubt it.

Fox!News! reporting this morning that workers are frantically power-washing the facade on the upper floors so they can at least get the casino back open. No word on when hotel rooms can re-open. I imagine there's a lot of stuff left behind that has to get to rightful owners first; then housekeeping will have a nice relaxing few days cleaning all 3,000 rooms to vacant-ready status.

You don't think that could happen again?

Having sprinklers on all floors greatly reduces the rapid spread of the fire. Most floors should be constructed out of flame retardant stuff anyway, so unless there are combustibles that shouldn't be there, it should me much easier to control.

Since none of the actual rooms were even slightly singed...I doubt it.

Fox!News! reporting this morning that workers are frantically power-washing the facade on the upper floors so they can at least get the casino back open. No word on when hotel rooms can re-open. I imagine there's a lot of stuff left behind that has to get to rightful owners first; then housekeeping will have a nice relaxing few days cleaning all 3,000 rooms to vacant-ready status.
I don't know if I believe that none of the actual rooms were even slightly singed. I know appearance means a lot in Vegas but why does that have to be cleaned to open the casino back up?

Having sprinklers on all floors greatly reduces the rapid spread of the fire. Most floors should be constructed out of flame retardant stuff anyway, so unless there are combustibles that shouldn't be there, it should me much easier to control.
Absolutely agreed that it would be much harder to get going and much easier to get under control but fire has a habit of overcoming it's obstacles.

I don't know if I believe that none of the actual rooms were even slightly singed. I know appearance means a lot in Vegas but why does that have to be cleaned to open the casino back up?

I guess it's a matter of semantics. The interiors of the rooms didn't get any damage but may have gotten a bit of smoke damage. A few of the high roller suites on the top floors got "singed" on the exterior, which is what they're furiously trying to clean up. It would be very hard to see most of this damage from inside your room, since those windows probably don't open up enough for you to stick your head out to see.

And you're probably right...they probably can run the casino on the bottom just fine. From the initial news reports, most gamblers continued to play as the fire raged above!

from the local paper:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/news/2008/jan/26/saturday-morning-monte-carlo-update/

Saturday morning Monte Carlo update
By Sun Staff · January 26, 2008 · 9:23 AM


MGM Mirage has just released this statement, updating events in the wake of Friday’s rooftop fire that sent thousands of guests and workers onto the street. Here it is:

Guests began retrieving their belongings from floors 3 through 26 of the Monte Carlo at approximately 8:00 PM last night. Guests from more than 2,000 rooms have been transported from their new hotels to the Monte Carlo, where they were escorted to gather their belongings and taken back to their hotels.

Retrieval operations ran smoothly and continued through the night and will continue through the day today. Guests from only approximately 250 rooms have yet to retrieve their belongings from the floors released by county inspectors last night. Guests on these floors can now come to the hotel at any time to retrieve their personal items.

The county safety inspectors have not yet released floors 27-32. Once they have done so, those guests will be able to come to the property to retrieve their belongings We anticipate that will happen in the next few hours and will communicate with those guests as we know more.

Throughout the night, we have made accommodations for guests on floors 27 through 32 to retrieve urgently needed items, such as keys, prescription medicines and passports.

Any belongings not claimed because guests were scheduled to leave town before they could retrieve them will be shipped overnight.

Guests are able to retrieve vehicles from valet parking at any time. The property remains closed today. County inspectors and company executives continue their assessment of the building. The process of determining a schedule for re-opening the resort is underway.

Last night, MGM MIRAGE notified Monte Carlo employees that the company is committed to continue their pay and benefits for 30 days or until the resort re-opens, whichever period is shorter.

Despite the resort being closed, many employees are on site assisting guests and initiating clean-up and restoration of the resort. Employees should continue to call the Employee Hotline at 693-7005 for information about when they will need to report to work

The staff and management of Monte Carlo again wish to extend thanks and appreciation to the Clark County Fire Department and the thousands of people who contributed in this time of need. Your actions are a tribute to our entire community.

Update....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080127/D8UDU7PO0.html

Official Orders Casino Facade Removed

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The burned exterior facade along the roof of the Monte Carlo hotel-casino will have to be removed or secured before the Las Vegas Strip resort can reopen, the chief county building inspector said Saturday.

Ron Lynn, chief of the Clark County Building Department, said the 32-story building will remain closed until resort owner MGM Mirage Inc. (MGM) completes work to the roof-line foam building material damaged in Friday's blaze.

A spokesman for the casino company said he could not immediately say how long that would take. "Now that the county inspectors have completed their work, we'll begin our assessment," MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher said.

Lynn and an assistant Clark County fire chief, Sandra Baker, said most fire damage was to the exterior of the top five floors of the 3,213-room hotel. The roof was not damaged, they said, declining to estimate repair costs.

"The building is in a safe condition," Lynn said. "We feel it's habitable from the casino up through the 26th floor."

The cause of the three-alarm blaze remained under investigation, Baker said.

I wonder how many people had booked rooms at the monte carlo for their trip to the superbowl. Where is the monte carlo putting up all of the displaced guests?

I wonder how many people had booked rooms at the monte carlo for their trip to the superbowl. Where is the monte carlo putting up all of the displaced guests?

Other MGM Grand properties: TI, Mirage, Luxor, NYNY, Bellagio, CircusCircus, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand.

And please, never, never take the elevator when an alarm is sounding. Grit your teeth, curse the fact that it will take forever...and take the stairs.

You do NOT want to be in an elevator when the power goes off in the middle of a fire alarm.

Most of the strip hotels I've stayed at have "fire doors" which will close and block access to the elevator banks.

So is the smell of smoke in the Monte Carlo worse than that in the Gold Spike yet? :D

So is the smell of smoke in the Monte Carlo worse than that in the Gold Spike yet? :D

LOL!!!! ^ ^

Most of the strip hotels I've stayed at have "fire doors" which will close and block access to the elevator banks.

From personal experience, this was not true at Bellagio.

As of Saturday morning, the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino remains closed, with no word on when it will reopen. - Headline News

My host (annoying keeps calling) says that after this Friday, guests can check into the hotel. In the meantime, she has booked me at Bellagio.