Hotel And Casino Fires In Las Vegas Exacerbated By Limitations Of Extinguishers

MGM Hotel and Casino fire in Las Vegas (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - On November 21, 1980, a fire broke out at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. As a result, 85 people were reportedly killed and 650 others injured. The luxury of hotels and casinos disappeared within 90 minutes of burning. In fact, this incident became the third worst hotel fire in the United States (US). What is wrong?

MGM Grand Hotel and Casino or now operating as Bally's Las Vegas, entered the Vegas scene in 1973 with the most luxurious debut in the long history of hotel openings in Las Vegas. MGM Grand Hotel and Casino is the largest resort hotel in the world. Not only the biggest, but also the most expensive and most luxurious in Las Vegas.

The MGM Grand Hotel has nearly 2,100 guest rooms. Other lavish amenities include eight large restaurants and a casino touted as the world's largest, a cinema and two large exhibition halls that attract some of the biggest names in the nightly show business.

Citing a fire report from the Clark County Fire Department, on the day of the fire incident, about 5,000 people were scattered throughout the resort. It was unclear exactly when the fire started, but it was reported to MGM security at 7:05 a.m. local time. Meanwhile reports entered the Clark County Fire Department at 7.17am.

The origin of the fire is very clear, namely the electrical disturbance within the walls at The Deli restaurant located in the casino area. The vibrations from the pastry display case that are not installed properly cause friction damage to the wires on the walls, which cause sparks.

The restaurant was closed, so the fire continued to burn and spread to piles of napkins, wallpaper, casino tools made of plastic, cellulose ceiling tiles burning at 5 to 10 feet per second, and highly flammable tile adhesives. In fact, almost everything in a casino, from candle holders to trash cans, is made of a highly flammable combination of wood and plastic.

The moment a hotel employee saw the flickering of flames, the flames licked the ceiling of the restaurant. Within six minutes, the entire 450,000 square foot casino was engulfed in flames. Meanwhile, burning plastic produces deadly fumes.

Automatic fire extinguishers were installed in several parts of the MGM Grand. But they didn't install these sprinklers in the casino and restaurant area.

Despite pressure from local firefighters and a letter from one of the company's own consultants stating that "the responsibility of all non-sprayed areas in this building should be your company's concern," MGM balked. This led to a lawsuit following the fire, noting that the construction of the entire hotel was subject to massive waste, but did not pay attention to safety.

The Clark County Department of Buildings agreed not to blame MGM Hotel for the absence of extinguishers in occupied premises 24 hours a day, arguing that employees would immediately become aware of a fire and use a portable fire extinguisher to put it out. But when the hotel decided not to leave the restaurant open 24 hours, sprinklers were never added.

The MGM Grand Hotel is also known to have no automatic fire alarms. Instead, staff must manually turn off the alarm once a fire is identified and no manual fire alarm pull-out area exists in the casino complex area. If the alarm is pulled, a signal sounds immediately in the security office but there is an automatic five-minute delay before the central station and fire department are notified.

The delay is designed to give security personnel time to investigate whether the alarm was sounded because it was a real fire or not. However, those minutes could also cause the fire to pass and spread, trapping guests sleeping upstairs.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against MGM, demanding more than US $ 2 billion in damages. A lawyer, representing the three couples against the MGM Grand Hotel, expressed annoyance about the reopening of the hotel, saying that the resort still had defects that could be dangerous in the event of another fire.

The original hotel tower, where most of the deaths have occurred, continues to operate. The second tower opened in 1981. The MGM Grand was sold in 1986 to Bally Manufacturing, which changed its name to Bally's Las Vegas. The new MGM Grand opened in Las Vegas in 1993, on the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, south of the original MGM.